We've been hearing about the universal health insurance system being adopted by other First World countries and how it has successfully provided families with better medical care and helped them in their unpaid hospital bills. But what is exactly a universal insurance system?

Universal insurance of single payer insurance means the medical bill expenses are facilitated and paid for by one source using the money collected from its citizens through taxes and levies. The federal government itself can take that role of a health care provider or subcontract it to another corporate entity.

One misconception about universal insurance is that it is socialist in nature. The difference in the latter concept is that it is the government which owns and manages-and in some cases, profits-from the health facilities. Simply put, in a socialist environment, the government has its hands all over the system, from delivery of health care to collection of payments. Universal insurance, meanwhile, is just a mechanism where health care is delivered efficiently and without so much fuss.

You can still choose where you want to have your treatment. You can still continue to see your family doctor whom you are most comfortable with, or the hospital that knows your history and medical condition and in turn, would be able to provide you with the best opportunity to recover. You don't worry about unpaid hospital bills, including the medicines that are prescribed to you. On the off chance that you are interested how it works, the provider either pays the doctor's professional fee for each time you visit or the doctor is paid a hefty monthly salary using public money.

We've heard of the sob stories of families being turned out because they don't have the capacity to pay for their surgery or medical procedure. Under the present setup where co-pays and deductibles prevent families from going to the doctor unless it's absolutely necessary, which carries the danger of worsening the disease, you can go to the hospital for the most trivial of things precisely to avoid that from happening.

Under the single payer system, you don't have to worry about that regardless of whether you are poor, bankrupt, unemployed or a millionaire. Coverage will cut across sectors and social class. That means unpaid hospital bills will be a thing of the past. If you think universal health insurance is a pipe dream, consider that it's successfully implemented in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, among others.