Just recently, the health care reform bill has been approved in the US. Due to this, the Europeans are gloating that it took this long for this kind of legislation to be passed. Europe has always had their systems controlled by their governments. US has finally come around to this concept.

In history, Germany has one of the oldest universal health care structures. It dates back to Otto von Bismarck's legislation. And then preceded by Britain in 1911, which covered majority of employees including their dependents provided they were giving to the scheme for a minimum of 5 yrs. Following the signing of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the National Health Service was created in 1948. This broadened the security of the government's health initiatives to include all legit citizens of Britain. Majority of other countries that signed the Human Rights Declaration followed suit with their own versions of health care systems. The US was one of the signatories who did not ratify the right to health.

Universal health care all have one thing in common, that is, there is some form of involvement by that country's government whether through regulation, legislation or taxation. They usually prescribe what sort of care must be given, based on what, & to which particular individuals. Some programs are partly paid by the client with most of the costs from either taxes or obligatory insurance while others are shouldered by taxes alone. Quite often, the government runs the system directly.

Different countries have various systems for universal health services depending on the degree of involvement of the government. Switzerland and the Netherlands have systems run by private companies which are greatly controlled by the government that they cannot take advantage of the mandated insurance. They make their killing thru supplementary insurances. In Italy, Spain, UK & some Nordic countries, the government is fully involved in health care services and eligibility is based on citizen rights and not mandatory insurance.

In Canada, the system is financed by taxes but private companies provide a lot of the services. Physicians collect a fee according to the services rendered. In Australia, 67.5% of the system is funded by the government while the rest is shouldered by private companies. In nations such as France, Germany, & Japan, they use a multi-payer system-health service funded by both public and private sources. The private funding comes from employees, together with their employers, contributing to sickness funds that are regulated. Contribution depends upon an individual's salary.