The National Health Insurance (NHI) model is often described as being an in-between of the Beveridge and Bismarck models, incorporating features of both.
Overlapping with the Beveridge model, the NHI model is a single-payer system which means that essential health care is funded by taxes. However similar to the Bismarck model, health cover is insurance based and although care is publicly funded, it is often provided by the private sector. This means hospitals are usually privately owned and run so the doctors, nurses and hospital staff are also mostly privately employed.
NHI systems tend to be very economic because they are nonprofit and therefore have lower administrative costs than out-of-pocket model insurance plans. As well as this, in order to further save costs, NHI plans can limit the services they will cover or make patients wait to be treated.
NHI model countries also tend to possess significant market power, for example Canada has been able to negotiate low prices for pharmaceuticals to the extent that American drug stores seek to buy supplies north of the border.
Which countries use this model?
Countries where national health insurance systems can be found include: Canada, South Korea and Taiwan.
References:
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Emilia Chen, Oxford