Health care industry

The health care industry is considered an industry or profession which includes peoples exercise of skill or judgment or the providing of a service related to the preservation or improvement of the health of individuals or the treatment or care of individuals who are injured, sick, disabled, or infirm. The delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding group of trained professionals coming together as an interdisciplinary team.[4][5]
The health care industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries.[6] Consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3 percent[7] of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For the United States, the health share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016.[8] In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent[9] with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland (10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three.