The Soviet Ministry of Health made all health policy decisions for the individual consumer and the medical profession, as well as for the fifteen separate republics of the Soviet Union through republic ministries of health. Although Soviet socialized medicine has often been described as universally accessible, egalitarian, and monolithic, regional and local health policy was implemented by a myriad number of organizations. These were accountable to two sources: first, to the central administration and budget of the Ministry of Health, and second, to the local medical authorities, which functioned quasi-independently of the ministries of health.