Short Analytical Paper: Maioni

Article Analysis
(Name)
(University)
(Course)
(Tutor)
(Date)
The article Parting at the Crossroads: The Development of Health Insurance in Canada and the United States, 1940-1945, as its title suggests explores the growth of health insurance in the United States and Canada and why this system differs in the two countries (Maioni, 1997). Consequently, this paper explores the key point of the author and examine whether she succeeds in persuading her audience besides highlighting significant lessons that can be learnt from the article.
Admittedly, Antonia Maioni seeks to make the readers understand how the interaction between political institutions, state structures, social forces and state actors' input influence policy development. To achieve this, Maioni has set out to conduct a comparative historical assessment on how these factors influenced the development and subsequent reformation of health insurance in both the United States and Canada. Noticeably, the author basis the difference between the health insurance structures of the two countries on their dissimilar institutional configurations. Maioni argues that the parliamentary institutions and federal structure of Canada's political system favored the emergence “a social democratic third party” that enhanced the efficacy of the state in promoting healthcare policy reform. Contrastingly, the political system of the United States was institutionally constrained and limited to two antagonistic parties, thereby limiting the ability of the country to champion for health policy reforms. Consequently, the two countries have developed diverse health insurance systems; with Canada adopting a universal health insurance and the United States a more limited health insurance which is usually targeted to specific clientele. Thus, Maioni effectively employs the interaction between political systems, social forces and state structures to explain the difference between t...