Language is constantly changing. The more humans converse, the more it changes. Usually, two-word phrases that are frequently used soon become hyphenated or become a compounded word. The term health care is no exemption. People are unsure and are asking, “Healthcare or Health Care” “Is healthcare one word, or two?”
In the US, people are very much concerned that they are getting the proper health care services. In fact, it is a primary concern of their day-to-day living. It has been a long-standing joke that American millennials are obsessed with public health care. Western countries are concerned with the policies that surround health care services. It is actually a large part of their daily conversations.
Health care is written differently in various countries depending on how it is used in the sentence. It is sometimes spelled as health-care, healthcare, and the two-word health care.
Let us compare healthcare vs health care. To differentiate the two, we are going to use it in a sentence with the proper context.
Let us answer the million-dollar question: Is healthcare one word or two?
Health Care Definition
Health care, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as “efforts made to maintain or restore physical, mental, or emotional well-being especially by trained and licensed professionals”. It refers to the process of maintaining one’s overall well-being, by medical means.
Health care is used as a noun. Let us use the term in a sentence.
- Everyone became obsessed with health care when the pandemic started.
- The government should prioritize the improvement of health care during these uncertain times.
- It is both sad and alarming that most Americans are not able to afford the cost of health care.
Remember, the two-word health care is used as a noun. Health care is the more accepted way of writing as of the moment; it is the standard in American English. However, the compounded one, healthcare, is getting more and more used nowadays.
Healthcare as an Adjective
The compounded word, healthcare, is actually just a variant of health care. Currently, despite its growing popularity among the masses, it is not yet accepted as a standard in American English. However, one-word healthcare is accepted as an adjective for British audiences.
So, when do we use healthcare?
Here are some sentences that use healthcare as an adjective.
- IntelyHealth is committed to making the lives of healthcare workers easier by providing top-of-the-line solutions that will improve medical services.
- In this sentence, healthcare modifies the word workers, which means people who provide health care.
- The healthcare industry is composed of hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, and other companies that provide medical support services like health insurance.
- Like the first example sentence, healthcare describes industry. In other words, the industry that provides health care to people.
- In these uncertain times, it is wise to get healthcare insurance for your family.
We must note that healthcare is a compound adjective in British. In American English, the adjective form is hyphenated, health-care.
Health care VS Healthcare
To help you in remembering which to use between healthcare or health care, here are a few tricks.
As of writing, healthcare as an adjective is not accepted as a standard in American English. If you are to use health care as an adjective to modify or describe something, you should use the hyphenated health-care.
If you are writing a formal paper, you should stick to the two-word health care as a noun. You must be careful, though, because Microsoft Office and Grammarly do not detect healthcare as something to be corrected.
In British English, compounded adjective healthcare is only accepted as an adjective; still, health care is more commonly used as a noun.
The Popularity of Healthcare
As mentioned, single-word healthcare is being used more and more nowadays. Dr. Deane Waldman, MD, MBA has a whole new answer to this long-standing debate of Healthcare VS Health Care. He argued that we should use both healthcare and health care for different purposes.
According to Dr. Waldman, it is only proper to follow the American English standard of using health care as a noun. On the other hand, he says that healthcare can be used both as a noun and an adjective.
For Dr. Waldman, this is Health care refers to the actions taken by medical providers to maintain or improve the health of patients. On the other hand, healthcare refers to the system, the industry, or the field that is concerned with the delivery of care to patients.
To put it simply, Dr. Waldman says:
“Health care – two words, refers to provider actions. Healthcare – one word – is a system. We need the second in order to have the first.”
Summary
So, is healthcare one word or two?
If you are writing a formal paper, you ought to follow the standard of American English. You should use the two-word health care. If you will use it as an adjective, use the hyphenated health-care.
In British English, the standard form if it is to be used as a noun is still health care. However, if you are to use it as an adjective, healthcare data management is accepted.
As language is constantly changing, there will surely come a time where we won’t have to argue which to use.
