Nice Health Care for All Glossary from AARP

GLOSSARY

Universal health insurance: The goal of ensuring that every American has access to health coverage, regardless of the specific system used to achieve it.


Group health insurance: The traditional system in which employers or unions offer subsidized private insurance to employees or members and their dependents at discounted group rates.


Individual health insurance: Private policies purchased by individuals or families who do not have access to group insurance. Applicants may be denied coverage or have to pay more because of
age, gender or preexisting medical conditions.


Public health insurance: These include Medicare (for older or disabled people), Medicaid (for the poor), SCHIP (for children), the Veterans Affairs health system and some state programs. Care is subsidized by federal or state governments or both.


Single payer: A centralized system used by several Western nations in which the government pays for every resident’s health care as a basic social service, funded out of taxes.


Socialized medicine: A single-payer system in which the government owns and runs health care facilities and pays salaries to doctors. (In the U.S., only the VA health care program would fit into this category.)


http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/policy/articles/he06_healthreform.html


I guess it takes a DD 214 to get socialized medicine in America.