Health care

Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”. The organised provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include specific governmental organizations such as, in the UK, the National Health Service or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care. Before the term "health care" became popular, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the treatment and prevention of illness and disease.

In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. The National Health Service, established in 1948 by Clement Atlee's Labour government in the United Kingdom, were the world's first universal health care system provided by government and paid for from general taxation. Alternatively, compulsory government funded health insurance with nominal fees can be provided, as in Italy. Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labor government, and by the same name Medicare was established in Canada between 1966 and 1984. Universal health care contrasts to the systems like health care in the United States or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many countries attempting health care reform. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.

The United States is alone among developed nations with the absence of a universal health care system.^[10][11] Healthcare in the U.S. does, however, have significant publicly funded components. Medicare covers the elderly and disabled with a historical work record, Medicaid is available for some, but not all of the poor, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program covers children of low-income families. The Veterans Health Administration directly provides health care to U.S. military veterans through a nationwide network of government hospitals; while active duty service members, retired service members and their dependents are eligible for benefits through TRICARE. Together, these tax-financed programs cover about 27% of the population and make the government the largest health insurer in the nation. In 2001, only the governments of Iceland and Norway spent more per capita on healthcare. This care is generally provided by privately owned hospitals or physicians in private practice, but public hospitals are common in older cities. Just under 60% of Americans receive health insurance through an employer, although this number is declining and the employee's expected contribution to these plans varies widely and is increasing as costs escalate. A significant and growing number of people cannot obtain health insurance through their employer or are unable to afford individual coverage. Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 16% of the U.S. population, or 47 million people, are uninsured. More than a third of the uninsured are in households earning $50,000 or more per year. Some uninsured are people under age 30 who don't believe they need to purchase health care; others are eligible for Medicaid but have not applied. The cost of medicines is frequently not covered by insurance, and some U.S. citizens travel to Canada and Mexico for drug purchases at prices far below those in their home areas. A few states have taken serious steps toward universal health care coverage, most notably Minnesota and Massachusetts, with a recent example being the Massachusetts 2006 Health Reform Statute.^[15] Other states, while not attempting to insure all of their residents, cover large numbers of people by reimbursing hospitals and other health-care providers using what is generally characterized as a charity care scheme; New Jersey is perhaps the best example of a state that employs the latter strategy. It is typical for most forms of general liability insurance sold in the U.S., such as home, automobile, or business insurance to have a significant premium allocation for medical damages. The U.S. legal system, which has the highest number of attorneys per capita of any country in the world, is available to assist in proving liability and collecting the money for medical bills from such insurances.

The Indian Health Service provides public funded care for indigenous peoples. Employer benefit based health insurance remains quite common with larger employers. Workers injured on the job are covered by government mandated worker compensation insurance and wage replacement benefits. These benefits vary considerably state-to-state and employers bear the cost of this insurance. Businesses with considerable risks, such as bridge-building, mining, or meat processing face far higher worker compensation insurance costs than do office based clerical businesses. Although the Medical colleges and research institutes form a backbone structure for providing healthcare, the private hospitals and nursing homes also are becoming an increasingly necessary part of the healthcare structure in the country.

Source From : www.wikipedia.org