What Is Universal Health Insurance? 
Universal health insurance can also be referred to as single payor health insurance and is a term used to denote a health insurance system that covers all citizens of a nation . Generally the concept of a Universal Health Insurance system is used in reference to the government run or managed systems such as are found in Canada and many European countries . While there are variations on the theme from country to country the objective , as the name implies , it to provide health insurance coverage to every citizen of the country regardless of their income or health status . Usually Universal Health Insurance systems are funded by taxes paid by the nation 's citizens and businesses . The concept of Universal Health Insurance sounds appealing to many and is becoming part of the ongoing debate in the United States about how to finance our citizen 's health care needs . In theory everyone would have comprehensive health insurance coverage with the cost spread out amongst every citizen and with lower overhead costs as a single , government run agency administers the health insurance system . In practical terms , the real world results of such systems have fallen short of perfection and have their own sets of problems and sources of dissatisfaction just as we experience with our current mixture of private and public based health insurance systems here in the United States . 