Identification

• National health insurance is a health care program administered by a government, rather than by private insurance companies.
  
  

Objective

• All-inclusive, comprehensive national health insurance programs are designed to provide health care to all who qualify, regardless of financial status or pre-existing conditions. These programs also are designed to reduce the overall costs of providing medical care and to guarantee that health care workers are paid for their services.
  
  

Classification

• If a national health insurance plan is extended to all residents of a region (and other qualifying individuals), it is considered a form of universal health care, in which every person receives needed medical attention and services are provided through government programs. There are several types of systems to organize universal health care funding, including single-payer, multi-payer, tax credits, and managed competition.
  
  

Types

• There are different types of national health insurance programs. Medicare and Medicaid are actually considered national health insurance programs, because the government pays private health care providers in much the same way private insurance companies do. Canada has extended this type of program to all its residents. Medicare and Medicaid do not constitute universal health care, however, as only a fraction of the population qualifies. Another type of national health insurance is one in which health care providers are direct government employees, such as in the United Kingdom. Variations and combinations of these types of programs also exist.
  
  

Comparison

• The United States is the only industrialized nation without some form of universal health care. Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom are a few examples of nations with universal health care.