The sphere of medical care and the prevention, intervention and prevention of illness and disease is collectively known as health care. According to The World Health Organization, healthcare embraces all the goods and facilities designed to promote health, including preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to people or to populations. The organized provision of such facilities may constitute 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. In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Established in 1948, The National Health Service in the United Kingdom was the world’s first universal health care system provided by administration.
According to The World Health Organization, a good alternative to this system is that in Italy where insurance for health is a compulsory but is a government funded service and possibly the second best around 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. These systems are almost opposite to the systems presently provided in American and South Africa although there are huge changes taking place in the system used by South Africa. people who work in healthcare include all professionals whose job it is to uphold life, treat and cure sickness and try to better the health of individuals. The collective term for this is the healthcare industry but the word industry may not necessarily be the best one to use.
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. The only world nation to differ is The USA with over fifteen percent according to figures published in 2003 but it is set to rise to almost twenty percent by the year 2016.
In The United States there are 180 million Americans who want health care and a recent study showed that it was the number one concern of those seeking employment. Many large companies in America are feeling the effects of these rises in healthcare provision and an extreme case was where the car giant General Motors was seriously considering bankruptcy because of it. 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.
The American healthcare system costs a great deal to employers but it is the number one thing that potential employees look for in an employer and has seen many shifts in how people view working for any given company. One answer is to this international problem is improve the general health and fitness of individuals generally so that this heavy reliance on medical care can be eased.