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Nooneofsignificance2 t1_je8lcj6 wrote

There’s like two dozen things it could mean based on each country. But there are really 3 major possibilities.

  1. Private Hospital, Public funding. Public funds a major portion of patient bills, private enterprise provides care. Aka Medicare for all style. How most nations do it.

  2. Public Hospital, Public Funding. All hospitals are government ran, payment is through taxation. Healthcare is completely a government enterprise. This is like NHS in the UK

  3. Private Hospital, Private Funding, but extreme regulation. The best example are the Swiss, everyone is mandated to get insurance and things are tightly regulated. This is the model the Obama administration was trying to move us to, trying to get everyone covered.

Note Universal Healthcare is really about ensuring everyone has some basic level of coverage. Healthcare systems can still very a lot in what that coverage entails. In the U.S the term has become synonymous with Medicare for all, the first option. However it should be noted this is not the only way to ensure everyone gets healthcare coverage. It’s just an extremely popular one since private health insurance seems to be such a train wreck in the United Sates.

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