Health Care Systems and the Levels of Care Explained
Author: Disabled World (DW)
Updated/Revised Date: 4 Aug 2026
Table of Contents:
Synopsis - Definition - About This Section - FAQs - Publications - Subtopics
Synopsis
Understand what health care means, its primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, universal coverage models worldwide, and how the U.S. system compares to others.
At a Glance
- 1 - Quaternary care extends tertiary care into highly specialized medicine.
- 2 - Australia and New Zealand both run publicly funded universal health care systems.
- 3 - U.S. government programs accounted for over 45 percent of health care expenditures.
- 4 - Health care costs more per person in the United States than in any other nation, at about 15.2 percent of GDP.
Topic Definition
- Health Care
Health care is the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of illness and injury, along with the preservation of overall health, delivered through the work of medical, dental, nursing, and allied health professionals. It reaches people across several connected levels, beginning with primary care as the first point of contact, moving to secondary care from specialists such as cardiologists and dermatologists, and extending to tertiary and even quaternary care for advanced and highly specialized treatment. Many services also take place outside hospitals and clinics through home and community programs that address wider public health needs. When these services are organized together, they form a health care system, and countries approach this in different ways, from the universal, government funded models common across Europe, Australia, and Canada to the largely private system found in the United States.
Overview
Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, dental, nursing, and allied health professions. The organized provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include specific governmental organizations such as, in the UK, the National Health Service or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care.
Health Care Definitions and Meanings
Health care:
(healthcare) is defined as the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in human beings. Health care is delivered by practitioners in allied health, dentistry, midwifery (obstetrics), medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, psychology, and other health professions. It refers to the work done in providing primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care, as well as in public health.
Primary care:
Refers to the work of health professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients within the health care system.
Secondary care:
The health care services provided by medical specialists and other health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients, for example, cardiologists, urologists, and dermatologists.
Tertiary care:
Specialized consultative health care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment, such as a tertiary referral hospital.
Quaternary care:
The term quaternary care is sometimes used as an extension of tertiary care, regarding advanced levels of medicine which are highly specialized and not widely accessed.
Home and community care:
Many types of health care interventions are delivered outside of health facilities. They include many interventions of public health interest, such as food safety surveillance and distribution of needle-exchange programs for the prevention of transmissible diseases.
Universal Health Care
Compulsory government funded health insurance with nominal fees can be provided, as in Italy. Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labor government, and by the same name Medicare in Canada was established between 1966 and 1984. Universal health care contrasts to the systems like health care in the United States.
A health care provider or health professional is an organization or person who delivers proper health care systematically and professionally to any individual in need of health care services. A health care provider could be government, the health care industry, a health care equipment company, an institution such as a hospital or medical laboratory, physicians, dentists, support staff, nurses, therapists, psychologists, pharmacists, chiropractors, and optometrists.
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.
Australia and New Zealand both have publicly funded universal health care systems, alongside ancillary private health care and insurance.
All of Europe has publicly sponsored and regulated health care including: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
United States Health Care
In the United States Medicare System, the United States Department of Health and Human Services is the executive department responsible for health.
It is managed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a member of the Cabinet. Health care in the United States is provided by many legal entities. Health care costs more per person in the U.S. than in any other nation in the world. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15.2% of GDP.
Certain publicly funded health care programs help to provide for the elderly, disabled, children, veterans, and the poor, and federal law mandates public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. U.S. government programs accounted for over 45% of health care expenditures, making the U.S. government the largest insurer in the nation.
Americans without health insurance coverage at some time during 2007 totaled about 15.3% of the population, or 45.7 million people. Health insurance costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and medical causes were cited by about half of bankruptcy filers in the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between health care and public health
Health care focuses on treating individual patients, while public health works to protect and improve the health of whole populations through prevention and education.
What is single payer health care
Single payer health care is a system in which one public body, usually the government, pays for most medical services on behalf of the entire population.
Does universal health care mean everything is free
Universal health care aims to cover everyone, but many systems still charge nominal fees, taxes, or copayments to help fund the services provided.
What does allied health mean in health care
Allied health refers to health professions outside medicine, dentistry, and nursing, such as physiotherapy, radiography, dietetics, and occupational therapy.
What is primary care compared with urgent care
Primary care is ongoing routine care from a regular provider, while urgent care handles immediate but non life threatening problems that cannot wait for an appointment.
How is health care funded in most countries
Health care is funded through a mix of general taxation, social health insurance contributions, private insurance premiums, and direct out of pocket payments by patients.
What is a health care provider network
A provider network is the group of doctors, hospitals, and facilities that an insurance plan contracts with to deliver care at agreed rates to its members.
Curated and edited by Ian C. Langtree, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Disabled World. This section is maintained by the Disabled World editorial team.
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