Single-payer health care

Single-payer healthcare is a system in which the government, rather than private insurers, pays for all healthcare costs. 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). The term "single-payer" thus only describes the funding mechanism—referring to healthcare financed by a single public body from a single fund—and does not specify the type of delivery, or for whom doctors work. In this sense, however, the UK Health Care system is technically not "single payer", as in reality it consists of a number of financially and legally autonomous Trusts, for example the Kent Community NHS Trust, which provides services in Kent, East Sussex and parts of London. The actual funding of a "single payer" system comes from all or a portion of the covered population. Although the fund holder is usually the state, some forms of single-payer use a mixed public-private system.