The sphere of medical care and the prevention, intervention and prevention of sickness and disease is collectively known as health care. Working to together this way, the whole medical profession would fall under the term healthcare system.

The English speaking world used to call this subject just medicine or refer to it the health sector which basically meant the same but it was before the expression health-care was coined. Of course the first country wide health care service started in the UK in 1948 and was called The National Health Service being the first to be organized and funded by the government.

Alternatively a system of compulsory administration 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. general health care contrasts to the systems like healthcare in America or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many countries attempting health care reform.

A problem which came to a head when General Motors was seriously considering bankruptcy over the strain its health car program was putting on the company. It was only after negotiations with the unions to reduce certain health benefits and the subsequent sell off of its poorly performing finance division that stopped the unthinkable from taking place.

In America, the prime worry of employees is their companies health care plans, even above their salaries, such is the importance placed on this progressively costly service. The health of the people on this planet should be something that is based on prevention rather than cure, a case of being hands-on as apposed to reactive.