Sarah Mupo, director of editorial operations at STAT News, writes about why the health care news organization will continue to spell “health care” as two words despite the Associated Press Stylebook changing it to one word.
Mupo writes, “While usage can sometimes change from two words to one over time (see the stylebook’s move this year to ‘daycare’ and ‘childcare’), we feel that ‘health care’ is an exception. Writing ‘health care’ 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) — for example, prenatal care, medical care, and cardiac care.
“The health care industry itself has largely moved toward using ‘healthcare,’ 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.
“When we asked for our readers’ help in making the call, we received an overwhelming and spirited response. Out of 210 votes, around 60% of people were in favor of ‘healthcare.’ To some, it was an issue of grammar or linguistics. To others it was more of a philosophical argument — 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.”
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