The term health-care is the provision of medical services plus the general prevention and management of illness using professional medical resources. The World Health Organizations definition is a little different and refers more to the prevention of illness and services to promote this, in addition to treatment that should be available to a single person as well as a whole population. Any collective group of medical professionals and facilities dedicated to providing this would be termed a healthcare system.
The English speaking world used to call this subject just medicine or refer to it the health sector which basically meant the same but it was before the term health-care was coined. Around the world today, most nations have a system in place to ensure that everyone receives healthcare irrespective of their social standing or financial situation. It was the UK that pioneered the first population based healthcare system back in 1948 called The National Health Service run by each successive government.
In Italy, they have a system that works by making everyone pay into a government funded insurance scheme which The WHO consider the second best healthcare system in the world. This type of system has been copied to a degree in both Australia and Canada where it is called by the same name of Medicare.
Nevertheless, these systems of health care where everyone benefits from a administration based service contrast starkly with those in The United States where almost all healthcare is paid for through the provision of insurance schemes or privately. People who work in healthcare include all professionals whose job it is to preserve life, treat and cure sickness and try to better the health of people. The collective term for this is the healthcare industry but the word industry may not necessarily be the best one to use.
Over a relatively short period of time, the healthcare industry has become one of the fastest expanding in the world with an average growth rate of just over 10 percent of the gross domestic product of many developed nations and is still growing, playing a huge role in the domestic economies of most nations. America has seen some of the largest rises and the figures in 2006 are expected to be the same as 2003 with over 15 percent of GDP – it is presently the biggest in the world but the increase by 2016 is expected to be almost 20 percent.
In America there are 180 million Americans who want healthcare and a recent study showed that it was the number one concern of those seeking employment. The costs of health care in The United States have risen so much that General Motors had looked at filing bankruptcy due to the increasing healthcare costs dragging down its auto manufacturing division. Luckily it didn’t happen after some concessions and compromises made with the unions but it does show how something like this can have an outcome on even the biggest of companies.
The American healthcare system costs a great deal to employers but it is the number one thing that potential workers look for in an employer and has seen many changes in how people view working for any given company. The health of the individuals on this planet should be something that is based on prevention rather than cure, a case of being hands-on as apposed to reactive.
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