healthcare

healthcare — noun

1. The range of medical services and programs that a government, company, or instit

1.nounB1
Definition

The range of medical services and programs that a government, company, or institution offers to maintain people's health and to treat them when they become sick.

Example

The government plans to invest more in public healthcare for rural communities.

collocation: public healthcare

Naoko works as a nurse in a healthcare centre near her hometown in Kyoto.

noun modifier: healthcare centre

Common collocations
  • public healthcare
  • private healthcare
  • free healthcare
  • affordable healthcare
  • preventive healthcare
  • healthcare system
  • healthcare services
  • healthcare provider
  • healthcare professional
  • healthcare costs
  • access to healthcare
Synonyms
  • medical care

    more narrowly focused on direct treatment by doctors and hospitals; healthcare is a broader term that includes prevention, public health, and administration

  • health services

    stresses the organizational and system side; commonly used in official or policy contexts

  • health provision

    more formal and common in British English; often refers to government-funded systems

Usage Note

Healthcare is an uncountable noun; it does not take 'a' or appear in plural form. The two-word spelling 'health care' is still used, especially in older or British publications, but the one-word form 'healthcare' is now standard in most dictionaries and style guides.

Common Mistakes

She works in a healthcare.
She works in healthcare.
healthcare is uncountable; do not use 'a' before it.
They cannot afford these healthcares.
They cannot afford this healthcare.
healthcare has no plural form.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Healthcare is the broadest of these terms, covering everything from hospital treatment and doctor visits to preventive programs, health education, and system administration. Medical care refers more narrowly to the direct diagnosis and treatment of illness by doctors, nurses, and other clinicians. Health services typically emphasises the organisational and institutional side — clinics, hospitals, insurance schemes — and is common in policy writing. Public health focuses on population-level measures such as sanitation, vaccination campaigns, and disease surveillance rather than individual treatment. For example, 'Expanding healthcare means investing in both medical care for sick patients and public health programmes that keep people well in the first place.'

healthcare ↗medical carehealth servicespublic health

Common collocations

Nouns

  • healthcare system
  • healthcare costs
  • healthcare reform
  • healthcare provider
  • healthcare professional

Phrases

  • access to healthcare
  • barriers to healthcare
  • healthcare in the community

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Healthcare is a compound of 'health' (from Old English hǣlþ, meaning 'wholeness, soundness, welfare') and 'care' (from Old English caru, meaning 'sorrow, anxiety, serious attention'). The two words were used together as a phrase ('health care') from the early 1800s, and the one-word compound ('healthcare') gained popularity in American English in the mid-20th century as the medical industry expanded into a coordinated system of services.