A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health professionals and allied health fields. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, optometry, audiology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and other health professions all constitute health care. The term includes work done in providing primary care, secondary care, tertiary care, and public health.
Switzerland has universal health care, regulated by the Swiss Federal Law on Health Insurance. There are no free state-provided health services, but private health insurance is compulsory for all persons residing in Switzerland.
The Swedish health care system is mainly government-funded, universal for all citizens and decentralized, although private health care also exists. The health care system in Sweden is financed primarily through taxes levied by county councils and municipalities. A total of 21 councils are in charge with primary and hospital care within the country.
Healthcare in Europe is provided through a wide range of different systems run at individual national levels. Most European countries have a system of tightly regulated, competing private health insurance companies, with government subsidies available for citizens who cannot afford coverage. Many European countries offer their citizens a European Health Insurance Card which, on a reciprocal basis, provides insurance for emergency medical treatment insurance when visiting other participating European countries.
Germany has a universal multi-payer health care system paid for by a combination of statutory health insurance and private health insurance.
Life expectancy has been rising rapidly and South Korea ranked 3rd in the world for life expectancy. South Korea has among the lowest HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate in the world, with just 0.1% of the population being infected, significantly lower than the U.S. at 0.6%, France's 0.4%, and the UK's 0.3% prevalence rate. South Korea has a good influenza vaccination rate, with a total of 43.5% of the population being vaccinated in 2019. A new measure of expected human capital calculated for 195 countries from 1920 to 2016 and defined for each birth cohort as the expected years lived from age 20 to 64 years and adjusted for educational attainment, learning or education quality, and functional health status was published by the Lancet in September 2018. South Korea had the sixth highest level of expected human capital with 26 health, education, and learning-adjusted expected years lived between age 20 and 64 years.
Healthcare in Turkey consists of a mix of public and private health services. Turkey introduced universal health care in 2003. Known as Universal Health Insurance Genel Sağlık Sigortası, it is funded by a tax surcharge on employers, currently at 5%. Public-sector funding covers approximately 75.2% of health expenditures.
Healthcare in Finland consists of a highly decentralized three-level publicly funded healthcare system and a much smaller private sector. Although the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has the highest decision-making authority, specific healthcare precincts are responsible for providing healthcare to their residents as of 2023.
The major causes of deaths in Finland are cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, respiratory diseases, alcohol related diseases and accidental poisoning by alcohol. In 2010, the leading causes of death among men aged 15 to 64 were alcohol-related deaths, ischaemic heart disease, accident, suicides, lung cancer and cerebrovascular diseases. Among women the leading causes were breast cancer, alcohol-related deaths, accidents, suicides, ischemic heart disease and lung cancer.
Healthcare in Denmark is largely provided by the local governments of the five regions, with coordination and regulation by central government, while nursing homes, home care, and school health services are the responsibility of the 98 municipalities. Some specialised hospital services are managed centrally.
Italy is known for its generally very good health system, and the life expectancy is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 5th in the world for life expectancy, and low infant mortality. In comparison to other Western countries, Italy has a relatively low rate of adult obesity, as there are several health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. The proportion of daily smokers was 22% in 2012, down from 24.4% in 2000 but still slightly above the OECD average. Smoking in public places including bars, restaurants, night clubs and offices has been restricted to specially ventilated rooms since 2005.
In 2006, life expectancy for males in Cyprus was 79 and for females 82 years. Infant mortality in 2002 was 5 per 1,000 live births, comparing favourably to most developed nations.
Iceland had the third-lowest crude mortality rate in Europe, at 355 per 100,000 population in 2015. It had the lowest rate of male smokers in Europe: 17%.
Croatia has a universal health care system, whose roots can be traced back to the Hungarian-Croatian Parliament Act of 1891, providing a form of mandatory insurance of all factory workers and craftsmen. The population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute and optional insurance and administered by the Croatian Health Insurance Fund. In 2012, annual compulsory healthcare related expenditures reached 21.0 billion kuna.
As of 2019 Lithuanian life expectancy at birth was 76.0 and the infant mortality rate was 2.99 per 1,000 births. This is below the EU and OECD average.
Healthcare in Luxembourg is based on three fundamental principles: compulsory health insurance, free choice of healthcare provider for patients and compulsory compliance of providers in the set fixed costs for the services rendered. Citizens are covered by a healthcare system that provides medical, maternity and illness benefits and, for the elderly, attendance benefits. The extent of the coverage varies depending on the occupation of the individual. Those employed or receiving social security have full insurance coverage, and the self-employed and tradesmen are provided with both medical benefits and attendance benefits. That is all funded by taxes on citizens' incomes, payrolls and wages. However, the government covers the funding for maternity benefits as well as any other sector that needs additional funding. About 75% of the population purchases a complementary healthcare plan. About 99% of the people are covered under the state healthcare system.
New Zealand is a high income country, and this is reflected in the overall good health status of the population. However like other wealthy countries, New Zealand suffers from high rates of obesity and heart disease.
Government-guaranteed health care for all citizens of a country, often called universal health care, is a broad concept that has been implemented in several ways. The common denominator for all such programs is some form of government action aimed at broadly extending access to health care and setting minimum standards. Most implement universal health care through legislation, regulation, and taxation. Legislation and regulation direct what care must be provided, to whom, and on what basis.
Health care finance in the United States discusses how Americans obtain and pay for their healthcare, and why U.S. healthcare costs are the highest in the world based on various measures.
