Health care

Health care is a general term referring to the delivery of medical services by specialist providers, such as midwives, doctors, nurses, home health aides[?], vaccination technicians and physician's assistants[?]. Usually such services are paid for by the patient or the patient's insurance company, although they may be government-financed or delivered by charities or volunteers, 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 etc., consumed an estimated 13 percent of the GNP of the United States.

Health care services include preventive care[?], vaccination, diagnosis, prescribing and administration of medicine, surgery, observation, and attendance at childbirth.