"Health Care" premiered on NBC on April 5, 2005. The episode received a 2.9/7 in the Nielsen ratings among people aged 18–49, meaning that 2.9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds viewed the episode and seven percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching TV viewed it. The episode garnered 5.8 million viewers overall. The episode, airing after Scrubs, retained 100% of its lead-in 18–49 audience. In addition, "Health Care," along with the other first season episodes of "The Office" helped NBC score its highest-rated Tuesday night slot since February 1, 2005. Critical reception to "Health Care" was largely positive. Erik Adams of "The A.V. Club" awarded the episode a "B+", and felt that the episode helped to expand upon Dwight's character, noting that "the pieces are falling into place" for Dwight to become the show's breakout character. Furthermore, he applauded the fact that the episode was based on an episode of the original BBC series, but that it did not create an exact copy, but rather used the concept as a template to create something new and original. In a review by DVD Verdict, Mike Pinsky stated that "Turning the third episode over to such a character, when Michael passes off responsibility for picking a corporate health care plan to Dwight, is meant to draw laughs out of his megalomania. But it just is not that funny." Travis Fickett from IGN wrote positively of the episode, giving it a 7.9/10 "good" rating. He noted that "there's something Stephen King about Dwight that creates an underlying layer of menace" and that the episode is "an early incarnation of ["The Office"'s] early days, its original "paradigm" – and arguably its strongest." IGN later placed Jim and Pam's prank of creating fake diseases as ninth in its "Top Ten Moments from "The Office"". Television Without Pity awarded the episode an A rating.