The Growing Importance Of The Healthcare Industry
Health care, or healthcare, whichever expression you prefer, is the prevention, intervention and management of illness using the facilities offered by the medical, nursing and allied health professions. The World Health Organizations definition is a little different and refers more to the prevention of illness and facilities to promote this, in addition to treatment that should be available to a single person as well as a whole population. Working to together this way, the whole medical community would fall under the expression healthcare system.
The term health care has not always been used though and prior to this is it was often just referred to medicine or the health sector but this was used more by English speaking nations. Around the world today, most nations have a system in place to ensure that everyone receives healthcare irrespective of their social standing or financial situation. This first started in the United Kingdom a few years after the end of World War 2 in 1948, and became the first health care service set up and run by a administration.
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 healthcare system in the world. Canada and Australia have both begun similar systems and have been running since 19.6 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. health care professionals are dedicated to preventing illness and disease principally, but also to treat and protect the long expression health of their patients.
Over a relatively short period of time, the healthcare industry has become one of the fastest growing 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 growing, playing a huge role in the domestic economies of most countries. Although in 2003 the healthcare costs paid to across the entire healthcare system, consumed 15.3 percent of the GDP of America, the biggest of any country in the world and is anticipated to reach almost twenty percent of GDP by 2016.
Currently in the The United States over one hundred eighty million citizens are looking for healthcare and it will be no surprise to learn that it is top of all concerns for those in and seeking employment. The costs of health care in The United States have risen so much that General Motors had looked at filing bankruptcy due to the increasing health care costs wearing down its auto manufacturing division. 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 effect on even the largest of companies.
Health care has become an extremely important issue to Americans one which employers must address to a work force which demands better healthcare benefits. Perhaps 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.
