Radiomotion

Posts Tagged ‘healthcare system’

Health care, or healthcare, whichever expression you prefer, is the prevention, treatment and management of sickness using the facilities offered by the medical, nursing and allied health professions. According to The World Health Organization, health care embraces all the goods and facilities designed to encourage health, including preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to people or to populations. The organized provision of such services may constitute a healthcare system.

Early on before the phrase health care was popular, the English speaking countries called it just plain medicine or more usually the health sector but it still meant the provision of a health service to treat and cure sickness and disease. Most developed and even developing countries have a system of health care for all to cater for those who cannot pay. Established in 1948, The National Health Service in the UK was the world’s first general health care system provided by government.

Instead a system of compulsory government funded health insurance with nominal fees can be provided, as with Italy, which, according to The WHO, has the second-best health system in the world. 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. 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. healthcare professionals are dedicated to preventing sickness and disease primarily, but also to treat and protect the long term health of their patients.

Over a relatively short period of time, the healthcare industry has become one of the fastest expanding in the world with an average growth rate of just over ten percent of the gross domestic product of many developed countries and is still increasing, playing a huge role in the domestic economies of most nations. The only world nation to differ is The USA with over 15 percent corresponding to figures published in 2003 but it is set to rise to almost twenty percent by the year 2016.

This is causing problems for large numbers of Americans with one hundred eighty million presently seeking adequate health care provision and it is also their single largest worry. The costs of health care in America have risen so much that General Motors had looked at filing bankruptcy due to the increasing healthcare costs dragging down its auto manufacturing division. As luck would have it, negotiations between the Union and GM management made a deal to reduce some of the benefits but keep operating as usual but the were force to sell off their under performing finance arm GMAC.

Health care has become an extremely fundamental issue to Americans one which employers must address to a work force which demands better health care benefits. One answer is to this worldwide issue is improve the general health and fitness of individuals generally so that this heavy reliance on medical care can be eased.