Health careorhealthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions [[1]].
The healthcare industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries, consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations.
Prior to the popularisation of the holistic neologism healthcare, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the treatment and prevention of illness and disease.
The industry includes the delivery of health services by doctors and other allied health providers. Usually such services receive payment from the patient or from the patient's insurance company; although they may be government-financed (such as the National Health Service in the UK) or delivered by charitiesorvolunteers, particularly in poorer countries.
Health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2000, health care costs paid to hospitals, doctors, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed an estimated 14 percent of the GNP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For the G7 countries the average is about nine percent.
The more generally accepted view of healthcare is that improvements result from advancements in medical science. The medical model of health focuses on the eradication of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment. In contrast the social model of health places emphasis on changes that can be made in society and in people's own lifestyles to make the population healthier. It defines illness from the point of view of the individual's functioning within their society rather than by monitoring for changes in biologicalorphysiological signs.
Related article: social and medical model of disability
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