Health care is the system of services and delivery that maintains or restores physical and mental well-being. It encompasses a broad range of activities, including preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative services. It is provided by a wide variety of medical and other health professionals. Health care may also include counseling and other support services for people with mental illness or emotional problems.
Health-related research and development is also a significant part of the industry. Its impact on health is variable; it can lead to the discovery of drugs that improve survival after heart attacks or provide the basis for new surgical techniques or methods for delivering lifesaving information about genes, cell function and other aspects of health.
The health-care sector is one of the largest and most complex industries in any nation. It consumes 3 to 18 percent of GDP and provides jobs for millions of skilled and unskilled workers. It is vital to the economic and social fabric of communities, and it has a profound influence on national security.
There is no single answer to the question of how best to organize and finance health care in a society. It is, in fact, a very complicated and difficult issue that is subject to many different ideological and political considerations. The most basic questions revolve around whether or not health care is a right, and the extent to which it is a right that should be subsidized.
Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland, have systems of universal healthcare that provide free or nearly free medical services for all residents through taxation. Other countries, such as Singapore, have a hybrid approach. They have inexpensive, public hospital wards and more expensive private rooms for those who can afford them, but they also fund health care through compulsory savings accounts that employees pay out of their paychecks into, and which can be spent on whatever they choose (including health care).
Libertarians believe that government should stay out of the business of providing health care to as great a degree as possible and allow it to operate under the free market principle of supply and demand. They believe that the best way to assure a quality product is through voluntary standards that can be applied to all providers. This, however, would have the effect of limiting choices for consumers.
Others believe that the government has an obligation to protect the welfare of its citizens and that a comprehensive national health insurance program is the best means to do so. This policy, which is favored by the Democratic Party, would require all employers to provide health insurance coverage for their employees and would impose penalties on those who do not comply with the mandate. The cost of such a program would be somewhat higher than that of other models, but its advocates argue that it can be affordable. A number of proposals for improving the quality of health care are being debated in Congress and state legislatures.