This category includes society-managed health insurance, government-managed health insurance, and
mutual aid associations (Appendix 1). Society-managed health insurance covered 25.4 percent of the
population in 1997. The average contribution rate was 8.5 percent of wages in 1997, shared evenly by
employers and employees. However, some employers agree to pay more than half of the contributions, and consequently employee shares in the society-managed sector averaged below 45 percent of the total
contributions. The 1,814 funds receive a small subsidy for administrative expenses from the national
government. Government-managed health insurance covers those private sector employees who are not covered by society-managed health insurance.