Healthcare or medical care? Healthcare and medical care are expressions that tend to be confused. Yet, they actually have major dissimilarities. While ‘healthcare’ is a generalized phrase, ‘medical care’ is particular in nature. So, this piece explores the difference between healthcare and medical care as well as elaborate on their differences.
Understanding the basic difference
Healthcare refers to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and restoration of health. It includes the provision of a hygienic environment and health facilities to individuals for a sustainable healthy life. Healthcare is about the overall system responsible for maintaining the health of a population and encompasses services such as public health campaigns, health education etc.
Medical care refers to any medical service provided by medical professionals to individuals. This includes services such as diagnosing and treating illnesses, providing medical procedures, and prescribing medications. Medical care ranges from adding or stopping a medication, monitoring blood pressure or blood sugar levels, or performing X- rays and MRIs.
So medical care can be considered as the subset of healthcare. Medical care deals with treating ailments and diseases. At the same time, healthcare refers to medical care plus all facilities, awareness, and the environment required to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Medical care is usually sought after only if a person falls ill while providing healthcare is an ongoing process that continues even when a person is healthy.
Who can provide healthcare and medical care?
Healthcare can be provided by a wide range of parts of a population, from individuals to local volunteer groups, from physicians to government agencies. The provision of healthcare doesn’t require any specialization in the medical field.
Anyone can contribute to the overall health of the population. Similarly, any nonspecialist can provide you with first aid. Any layperson can contribute to the sanitation of the environment.
Medical care, in contrast, includes the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Thus it requires licensed medical professionals with specialized training to provide these services.
Doctors, nurses, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, psychologists, therapists, and others make up this group of healthcare professionals. Medical care is the mutual trust between the physician and the patient.
Who is responsible for healthcare vs. medical care?
Healthcare means providing individuals with a healthy, hygienic environment, food, sanitation, and healthcare facilities like hospitals and specialized care centers. It also involves giving awareness about unhealthy behaviors like smoking, alcohol consumption, and drug abuse. These are fundamental human rights. So the government of the state is responsible for providing these facilities. Health care is also partly considered as the responsibility of the individuals. Every individual is responsible for taking the best care of their health.
On the other hand, medical care is what you receive when you visit a doctor after any medical emergency or symptoms. The diagnosis and treatment of the disorder, monitoring blood glucose, or bypass surgery are all examples of medical care. So medical care is more specific to individuals rather than the state. Thus trained medical professionals are responsible for providing medical care.
Delivery of healthcare and medical care
Healthcare is delivered through several government and private institutions, including hospitals, clinics, hospices, agencies responsible for the cleanliness and sanitation of the environment, pharmaceutical companies, medical technology companies, and parents accountable for developing healthy habits and raising awareness about health issues among their children. Instead, medical care is typically provided by hospitals, clinics, and medical professionals.
Healthcare also depends on socioeconomic factors
Healthcare depends on medical care. Improving medical care enhances the healthcare system. But healthcare also has many socioeconomic factors like education, occupation, and behavioral factors like smoking, drinking, overeating, etc. It is also dependent on social life and genetics. Individuals with a higher level of education are more aware of the harmful effects of poor health habits. Such individuals enjoy better health and higher life expectancy than the illiterate. Similarly, better occupation allows access to better health facilities and healthcare systems.
The reason the U.S. ranks 46th in life expectancy rate is poverty, alcohol, and substance abuse, uninsured individuals, and other unhealthy activities, not poor medical care.
Medical care doesn’t depend upon socioeconomic and environmental factors. Instead it relies on the expertise of the medical professionals, medical care procedures, and techniques utilized in the medical procedures, which are much better and more advanced.
Health outcomes are more dependent on healthcare
Health outcomes, such as life expectancy and mortality rate, are largely determined by the quality of healthcare. In fact, healthcare plays a crucial role in determining 80-90% of these health outcomes, while medical care only accounts for a small portion of it (10%).
It has been discovered that countries with well-established healthcare systems typically have higher life expectancies and lower rates of infant mortality because of better sanitation and access to high-quality healthcare.
In the United States, lifestyle influences life expectancy by 40%, genetics by 30%, public health initiatives by 20%, and medical care by only 10%.
Contrarily, medical care is influenced by individual decisions and lifestyles, which is why healthcare systems—rather than individual physicians—are more directly responsible for health outcomes. There is no medical treatment or product that can reverse a bad lifestyle.
Objective difference between healthcare and medical care
As far as medical care is concerned, it has never been better in history. Latest medical procedures and new health technologies have made medical treatment much more swift and economical. Imaging technologies revolutionize X-rays and MRIs. Robotic systems have been proven much more resourceful in the operating room. Still, advancements are being made to improvise methodologies, techniques, and technology for faster diagnosis and more efficient therapy.
The rate of death after a heart attack has decreased by 75% in the last 50 years. The current goal of medical care is to continue what we are doing and improve medical care further.
Speaking of healthcare, it has its limitations at present. According to WHO, half of the world’s population does not have essential healthcare facilities. Healthcare systems and facilities are not being provided equally to all segments of society. These resources are more urban-oriented, and people in rural areas have limited healthcare provisions.
The U.S. has a lower life expectancy and mortality rates than other high-income countries. The U.S. spends more than double on its healthcare systems than other countries, but the health outcomes are still worse. The current goal is to upgrade healthcare systems and make these facilities available for rural areas.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, medical care is a segment or component of healthcare. Healthcare is a large, all-encompassing concept that ranges from disease prevention and treatment to maintaining health and setting up healthcare facilities. At the same time, medical care is its subset, explicitly diagnosing and treating physical or mental illness. Improving healthcare requires improving medical care and other social and economic factors like occupations and public health literacy.