Health care, or healthcare, whichever expression you prefer, is the prevention, intervention and management of illness using the facilities offered by the medical, nursing and allied health professions. Although The WHO would like to see the expression extended to include all people whether an individual or whole populations. Working to together this way, the whole medical community would fall under the expression healthcare system.
The expression healthcare has not always been used though and prior to this is it was often just referred to medicine or the health sector but this was used more by English speaking countries. Even in most developing countries there is a form of health care provision for everyone whether they are in a position to pay or not. Of course the first country wide health care service begun in the UK in 1948 and was called The National Health Service being the first to be organized and funded by the administration.
A system second to this, according to The WHO is the one initiated in Italy where a compulsory system of insurance which the administration funds, but at a relatively low cost per individual, is used. Canada and Australia have both started similar systems and have been running since almost twenty and the 1970’s respectively both going by the name of Medicare. universal healthcare contrasts to the systems like health care in The USA or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many nations attempting healthcare reform. A health care professional is someone who dedicates their skills to the prevention, intervention and aftercare of disease and illnesses with the intention to preserve and protect life and improve the lives of the disabled or infirm.
Worldwide, over recent decades, there has been a huge growth in the sum of money spent on healthcare and it is now one of the fastest growing sectors in every developed country with an average cost of ten percent of the gross domestic product. America bucks this trend with, back in 2003, a health industry responsible or over fifteen percent of gross domestic product but this is anticipated to rise considerably by 2016 when it will almost one fifth of The United States GDP.
This is causing problems for large numbers of Americans with one hundred eighty million presently seeking adequate healthcare provision and it is also their single biggest worry. The costs of healthcare in The United States have risen so much that General Motors had considered filing bankruptcy due to the increasing health care 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 largest of companies.
Healthcare has become an extremely fundamental issue to Americans one which employers must address to a work force which demands better health care benefits. 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.
