中华医药_我的健康我做主(下)A

Main article: Health care systems
See also: Medical model, Preventive medicine, and Social medicine

Purely private enterprise health care systems are comparatively rare. Where they exist, it is usually for a comparatively well-off subpopulation in a poorer country with a poorer standard of health care–for instance, private clinics for a small, wealthy expatriate population in an otherwise poor country. But there are countries with a majority-private health care system with residual public service (see Medicare, Medicaid). The other major models are public insurance systems. A Social security health care model is where workers and their families are insured by the State. A Publicly funded health care model is where the residents of the country are insured by the State. Within this branch is Single-payer health care, which describes a type of financing system in which a single entity, typically a government run organisation, acts as the administrator (or "payer") to collect all health care fees, and pay out all health care costs.[10] Some advocates of universal health care assert that single-payer systems save money that could be used directly towards health care by reducing administrative waste.[10] In practice this means that the government collects taxes from the public, businesses, etc., creates an entity to administer the supply of health care and then pays health care professionals. Harry Wachtel estimate a single payer universal healthcare system will actually save money through reduced bureaucratic administration costs.[11] Social health insurance is where the whole population or most of the population is a member of a sickness insurance company. Most health services are provided by private enterprises which act as contractors, billing the government for patient care.[12] In almost every country with a government health care system a parallel private system is allowed to operate. This is sometimes referred to as two-tier health care. The scale, extent, and funding of these private systems is very variable.

A traditional view is that improvements in health result from advancements in medical science. The medical model of health focuses on the eradication of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment. In contrast, the social model of health places emphasis on changes that can be made in society and in people's own lifestyles to make the population healthier. It defines illness from the point of view of the individual's functioning within their society rather than by monitoring for changes in biological or physiological signs.