Financing Health Care
How societies pay for health care, and how many resources they devote to health, affects both the care people can get and its quality. In most developed countries, health care is paid for largely by the government or an organization associated with it, using taxes collected from citizens. The United Kingdom, for example, has a “single-payer” system in which the government pays directly for care; in France and Germany, the government collects taxes to fund part of the government health care system, and employers and individuals pay for the remainder of the costs directly. In other countries, such as the United States, a portion of the health care system is marketbased, that is, paid for by private entities such as employers and individuals. Even in marketbased systems, the government may provide health care to vulnerable people. For instance, in the U.S., federal funds support Medicare, which covers the elderly and disabled, and state and federal funds support Medicaid, which covers low-income people. These two broad approaches to financing health care – market-based and government financed – offer different advantages and disadvantages and neither is perfect in all aspects. All societies have to make choices between how broadly to provide access to basic and advanced care, how much to pay for health care and how much and which innovations to make available to patients.

Different Approaches to Health Care
In market-based systems, care is generally delivered by private organizations and individuals and all parts of the system are subject to some level of competition. There are many different payers, providers and suppliers, and people with insurance can choose which ones serve their needs best. Doctors may have the benefit of best-practice guidelines that indicate when and for whom different treatments should be used, but they’re free to make