{"id":693960,"date":"2026-06-09T18:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693960\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:07:24","slug":"is-health-care-one-word-or-two-at-stat-its-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693960\/","title":{"rendered":"Is health care one word or two? At STAT, it\u2019s two"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Associated Press Stylebook made the startling decision in April to shift from \u201chealth care\u201d to \u201chealthcare<\/a>,\u201d it set off a fierce debate not only in the STAT newsroom, where we use a lightly modified version of AP style, but among our readers. <\/p>\n

As STAT\u2019s director of editorial operations and a longtime copy editor, I consulted with my colleagues and also asked for readers\u2019 help. The fight over a single space, which has raged for years, might look a little silly from the outside, and maybe it is. But it\u2019s taken on perhaps outsize importance, and many people, including me, have strong feelings on the matter.<\/p>\n

After much deliberation, STAT has decided to continue to use \u201chealth care\u201d (two words) and remain consistent with how we\u2019ve written it since our founding more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

While usage can sometimes change from two words to one over time (see the stylebook\u2019s move this year to \u201cdaycare\u201d and \u201cchildcare\u201d), we feel that \u201chealth care\u201d is an exception. Writing \u201chealth care\u201d as two words puts more of an emphasis on the two distinct concepts. And it signals that there are many types of care (which are also not written as a compound word) \u2014 for example, prenatal care, medical care, and cardiac care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The health care industry itself has largely moved toward using \u201chealthcare,\u201d as many of our readers who work in the field pointed out. But our style is motivated by encompassing not only the business side of health care but the patient focus as well.<\/p>\n

When we asked for our readers\u2019 help<\/a> in making the call, we received an overwhelming and spirited response. Out of 210 votes, around 60% of people were in favor of \u201chealthcare.\u201d To some, it was an issue of grammar or linguistics. To others it was more of a philosophical argument \u2014 or simply common sense that the word should be written one way instead of another. For many, the word holds a different meaning when spelled as one word or two.<\/p>\n

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STAT is not a democracy, but the responses both for and against making the change helped sharpen my thinking. Here\u2019s a collection of what our readers had to say:<\/p>\n

In favor of \u2018health care\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AP style mavens have yet again yielded to \u2018usage\u2019 as justification for making a change, and cited industry usage to boot. Therein lies part of the problem; the term health care has much broader application than in business. \u2026 To call it \u2018healthcare\u2019 is plain wrong. Of course, I hate to think that during nearly four years as an editor at STAT I wasted time inserting a space between \u2018health\u2019 and \u2018care.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Karen Pennar<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a physician and have always bristled at compressing it into one word, even as I have on occasion succumbed to using \u2018healthcare.\u2019 There are many kinds of care. Attending to health is one of them.\u201d \u2014 Carole Allen<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Health care\u2019 should be two words. As I said in a recent STAT article<\/a> about ethical objections to the use of the word \u2018provider\u2019 to describe clinicians, language is important and certain business terms in health care turn patients into economic abstractions.\u201d \u2014 Lois Snyder Sulmasy<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a copy editor for almost 30 years, and I\u2019m tired of having to learn new things. Please let my brain have this one small thing, as a treat.\u201d \u2014 Katherine Dillinger<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth care is the type of care medical professionals provide. Healthcare is a sector of the economy, a commodity.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Daniel Bryant<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t use \u2018medicalcare\u2019\u2026\u2026.or \u2018pediatriccare\u2019\u2026\u2026\u2026or \u2018GIcare\u2019\u2026or \u2018heartcare\u2019\u2026\u2026It is two words!\u201d \u2014 Grendel Burrell<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Health\u2019 modifies \u2018care.\u2019 There are many types of care. \u2018Healthcare\u2019 commodifies the term. Grammar is thrown off with one word.\u201d \u2014 Mary Patrick<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like [\u2018health care\u2019] gives more emphasis to the health part. If it\u2019s one word and you\u2019re writing about mental health, is it \u2018mental healthcare\u2019? To me somehow that lessens the \u2018mental health\u2019 part of \u2018mental health care.\u2019 I don\u2019t know, one word just gives me the ick.\u201d \u2014 Terri Robinson<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease keep using \u2018health care\u2019 as two words. I\u2019m a federal employee enforcing federal health care laws. Federal law consistently uses the term \u2018health care\u2019 over \u2018healthcare.\u2019\u201d \u2014 C Lorden<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we lose the space between \u2018health\u2019 and \u2018care,\u2019 we lose the distinction between these two vital concepts. \u2018Healthcare\u2019 is shorthand for a vast industry. \u2018Health care\u2019 is a more flexible and expansive term that connects us to the human beings at the heart of this work: the people with health needs, and the people who care for them. Listen, you already use the Oxford comma. What\u2019s one more deviation from AP style?\u201d \u2014 Andrew Shih<\/p>\n

In favor of \u2018healthcare\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a distinct concept that we often talk about! Not just about the care of health, it\u2019s the industry, the complex, the providers \u2014 the term includes all.\u201d \u2014 Lynne Cotter<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Healthcare.\u2019 I say this as a former AP staffer and now current health writer. Politicians, industry leaders and others went to one word years ago and it looks ridiculous when we have a statement with \u2018healthcare\u2019 in the quote and it\u2019s one word and yet in the story it\u2019s \u2018health care.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Terri Langford<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 20 years I was a \u2018health care\u2019 guy, but now I\u2019m the CEO [of a company] that uses \u2018Healthcare\u2019 in our name. So I\u2019m contractually obligated to say \u2018Bravo, AP!\u2019\u201d \u2014 Shawn Gremminger<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the perspective of someone who works in policy communication, I think \u2018healthcare\u2019 (one word) better reflects the usage of the word as it relates to a system\/sector\/industry, rather than simply the act of caring for health.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Conor McGrath<\/p>\n

\u201cFaster with no loss of meaning \/ value \u2014 one less character \/ space.\u201d \u2014 Stephen Kahane<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always better to use one word instead of two, where possible. The same with \u2018childcare.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Kathleen Harriman<\/p>\n

\u201cLinguistically the shift to \u2018healthcare\u2019 follows the pattern of \u2018babysitter.\u2019 First those were two words, \u2018baby sitter.\u2019 Then came hyphenation: \u2018baby-sitter.\u2019 Finally we settled on \u2018babysitter.\u2019 Sticking with two words is like trying to hold back the tide.\u201d \u2014 Alma Colclasure<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Healthcare\u2019 is the norm in popular usage. Anything else seems hopelessly out of date. And this is from a person who still puts two spaces after a period!\u201d \u2014 Tia Goss<\/p>\n

\u201cFor eight years, I was an in-house editor and marketer for a regional health plan that scrupulously maintained the style preference of \u2018health care\u2019 \u2014 two words. A few years back, I created the editorial style guide for my current employer, a nonprofit nutrition services provider. My recommendation: \u2018healthcare,\u2019 one word. I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that striking that fussy little space is the least we can do to bring this unwieldy, monstrous monolith of an industry down to size.\u201d \u2014 James Flaherty<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must change with the times, you stodgy journalists. \ud83d\ude42 Also, it works better with healthcare-associated infections.\u201d \u2014 Jim Wappes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Associated Press Stylebook made the startling decision in April to shift from \u201chealth care\u201d to \u201chealthcare,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-693960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}