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.
Early on before the phrase healthcare was popular, the English speaking countries called it just plain medicine or more usually the health sector but it still meant the provision of a health service to treat and cure sickness and disease. In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. It was the United Kingdom that pioneered the first population based healthcare system back in 1948 called The National Health Service run by each successive administration.
A system second to this, according to The WHO is the one initiated in Italy where a compulsory system of insurance which the government funds, but at a relatively low cost per individual, is used. Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labor administration, and by the same name Medicare in Canada, established between 19.6 and 1984.
General health care contrasts to the systems like health care in America or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many nations attempting health care reform. The health care industry is considered a profession which makes use of the skills of professional healthcare workers who provide a service related to the preservation or improvement of the health of people who are injured, sick, disabled, or infirm.
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.
Early on before the phrase healthcare was popular, the English speaking countries called it just plain medicine or more usually the health sector but it still meant the provision of a health service to treat and cure sickness and disease. In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. It was the United Kingdom that pioneered the first population based healthcare system back in 1948 called The National Health Service run by each successive administration.
A system second to this, according to The WHO is the one initiated in Italy where a compulsory system of insurance which the government funds, but at a relatively low cost per individual, is used. Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labor administration, and by the same name Medicare in Canada, established between 19.6 and 1984.
General health care contrasts to the systems like health care in America or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many nations attempting health care reform. The health care industry is considered a profession which makes use of the skills of professional healthcare workers who provide a service related to the preservation or improvement of the health of people who are injured, sick, disabled, or infirm.
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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