Single-payer health insurance

Single-payer healthcare is a healthcare system in which the state, financed by taxes, covers basic healthcare costs for all residents regardless of income, occupation, or health status. The alternatives include "multi-payer" systems in which private individuals or their employers buy health insurance or healthcare services from private or public providers.

Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from private organizations (as is the case in Canada) or may own and employ healthcare resources and personnel (as is the case in the United Kingdom). "Single-payer" describes the mechanism by which healthcare is paid for by a single public authority, not the type of delivery or for whom physicians work. In contrast, multi-payer healthcare uses a mixed public-private system.

Single-payer health healthcare collects all medical fees and then pays for all services, by a single government (or government-related) source. In wealthy nations, that kind of publicly managed insurance is typically extended to all citizens and legal residents. Examples include the United Kingdom's National Health Service, Australia's Medicare, Canada's Medicare, and Taiwan's National Health Insurance.

The standard usage of the term "single-payer healthcare" refers to health insurance, as opposed to healthcare delivery, operating as a public service and offered to citizens and legal residents towards providing nearly universal or universal healthcare. The fund can be managed by the government directly or as a publicly owned and regulated agency. Some writers describe publicly administered systems as "single-payer plans". Some writers have described any system of healthcare which intends to cover the entire population, such as voucher plans, as "single-payer plans".

Various nations worldwide have single-payer health insurance programs. These programs generally provide some form of universal healthcare, which are implemented in a variety of ways. In some cases doctors are employed, and hospitals run by, the government such as in the United Kingdom or Spain. Alternatively the government may purchase healthcare services from outside organizations, such as the approach taken in Canada.

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