Healthcare is the general term used for the entire sphere of prevention, treatment and cure of sickness and disease using the facilities of medical professionals and resources. Although The World Health Organization would like to see the term extended to include all individuals whether an individual or whole populations. Working to together this way, the whole medical community would fall under the term 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 expression health-care was coined. In most developed countries and many developing nations healthcare is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Of course the first country wide healthcare service started in the United Kingdom in 1948 and was called The National Health Service being the first to be organized and funded by the 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 health care system in the world. Canada and Australia have both begun similar systems and have been running since almost twenty and the 1970’s respectively both going by the name of Medicare. These systems are almost opposite to the systems currently provided in American and South Africa although there are huge changes taking place in the system used by South Africa. A health care professional is someone who dedicates their skills to the prevention, treatment 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 increase 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 10 percent of the gross domestic product. The only world nation to differ is The United States with over fifteen percent according to figures published in 2003 but it is set to rise to almost 20 percent by the year 2016.
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 concern. A problem which came to a head when General Motors was seriously considering bankruptcy over the strain its health car program was putting on the company. 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 healthcare benefits. Possibly the situation needs to be looked at from a different angle, one in which people are promoted to stay fit and healthy as societies in general see a decline in the health of its populations.