Health care involves helping people deal with illnesses, as well as preventing illnesses from occurring in the first place. This includes both physical diseases and injuries as well as mental illnesses. Health care is provided by medical practitioners and health care workers, often in medical facilities.http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/health+care

There are many areas of health care, such as general family care, radiology, pediatrics, surgery, dentistry, psychiatry, holistic care and many others. Health care professionals include doctors, nurses and specialists. Sometimes health insurance may be obtained to help cover the costs of health care. This may be paid for on a personal basis or provided by employers.

Because there are so many aspects to human health, there are a wide range of different types of health care providers:http://adam.about.com/encyclopedia/Types-of-health-care-providers.htm

• Primary care physicians: These are doctors who patients may seek for initial treatment when there is a health concern, and they also can administer health check ups and screenings.
• Specialists: Specialists focus on a single area of the human body or a particular practice. Psychologists and optometrists are examples of specialists.
• Nurses: Nurses administer treatments and assist doctors in various testing, therapy and surgical situations. Some are designated as nurse practitioners, who have the capability to prescribe medicines.
• Pharmacists: Pharmacists distribute drugs prescribed by doctors or nurse practitioners. They may check prescriptions against other drugs and treatments to make sure that no disagreeable substances are used by patients at one time.