ABSTRACT
This chapter considers health by probing the etymology and broad meanings of the concept of health and analyzes various definitions of health. It discovers the contextual definition of health used in contemporary American society by exploring how we spend healthcare resources and what we measure to evaluate health. The chapter considers whether long life is an aspect of health and discusses a social definition of health. It explores the ways we use the concept of health as we think about the health of the individual, family, and nation and offers our own definition, from which a model for healthcare reform will later emerge. Most contemporary dictionary definitions of health are fairly limited in outlook, and fail to reflect on the etymological origins of the word and concepts from which our understanding of health developed. Health is not the mere absence of illness or disease, nor is it an entirely physical state.
