Health and health care

Abstract This chapter considers what are meant by health and health care, as well as what health care does for people. Health care consists of four branches of activities: cure, care, prevention, and rehabilitation. Whilst health care personnel normally provide cure, care, and rehabilitation, prevention may involve a range of interventions whose overriding objective is to prevent ill health and reduce the risks of dying — of which only a part would be provided by the health sector. A pragmatic definition of health care, then, is whatever happens to be classified as such in a national accounting system. In this way, we avoid a controversial classification into what might clearly be termed health care, and what might be referred to as cosmetics. Exercises and suggested readings are included at the end of the chapter.