Imperial Health Service (Napoleon's World)

The Imperial Health Service (French: Service de la santé Impérial), referred to as the SSI, is a French government health care program designed to administer health care to the population of the French Empire. The program was first instituted in 1964 after a long and contentious debate about the best method to implement it and has since overgone multiple redesigns. The SSI is the largest single branch of the French Ministry of Health.

The current model, completed in 2000 after a heated debate in the French General Assembly that eventually included both the Emperor and Minister of Health, has produced a bracketed progressive health service, in which the Imperial government guarantees a minimum subsidy of health care costs which increases based on income status and tax status. The attitude of Emperor Albert II, who helped design the plan following a breakdown of negotiations between the Ministry of Health and the General Assembly, was that the wealthiest French could afford to buy competitive private insurance and did not need government handouts, while the poor were unable to afford that luxury. As of 2011, the minimum annual insurance subsidy paid out by the Ministry of Health was 10%, the maximum was 85% and the average subsidy paid out was 38.5%.