The National Health Service was set up to cover the United Kingdom as a whole. Since then it has been split into four country regions: National Health Service (England), Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland, NHS Scotland, and NHS Wales.

The idea of a national health service was developed during the dark days of World War 2, when no one even knew if there would be a United Kingdom at the end of it. The report, called the Beveridge Report, was published in 1942. Until that time if you needed health care, you had to pay for it. If you went to the doctor for a visit, you had to pay him, just as you would a greengrocer - except he was a lot dearer. As a result, many people did not go to the doctor and get the health care and advice they needed, and illness and death rates were high.

At the end of World War 2, the new Labour Government went ahead and began to set up an organisation that would become the National Health Service (NHS). It began its work on the 5th of July 1948. It was paid for through the taxes everyone paid, and something called national insurance (which is a tax specially for health care). What you pay depends on how much you earn, so it is a fair tax with the better off supporting those who are less fortunate. The whole idea of supporting people in need is known as the Welfare State.

To begin with everything was free at the point of use, although some prescription charges were soon introduced because medicines were proving too costly to supply. These charges are still in place with the English NHS, but not in the other three systems.

Treatment for injuries caused in a road traffic accident has been chargeable since the 1930s, with charges going to the insurers of the vehicles involved. Patients are not, however, personally billed for treatment.

Over recent years dental and eye care has tended to drift out of public payment systems, although it is still theoretically available.

Almost the entire nation supports the NHS, a successful system like no other in the world.