The United Kingdom has a free-at-the-point-of-delivery universal health care system.

The National Health Service, founded in 1948, is funded from National Insurance and general taxation, and covers primary and secondary treatment, drugs, dentistry, and eye health.

There is a huge controversy in America at the moment about health care, who should pay, who should be covered, how the system should be organised, and how the whole health system should be structured.

I have seen on various places online a number of references to the Canadian system (about which I know almost nothing) and to the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom.

A lot of the comments I've seen in various places online bear little or no resemblance to how the NHS actually works.

This article sets out how the system came into being, how it works, who pays for it and how, and who is entitled to NHS treatment and coverage.

The NHS employs more than 1.5 million people in the country as a whole. It is the fourth biggest direct employer in the world, after the Chinese Army, Wal-mart, and the Indian Railways.