Cuba's health care policy: prevention and active community participation.
Soc Work
; 35(1): 29-35, 1990 Jan.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-2315760
ABSTRACT
PIP: The new Cuban government in 1959 began overhauling the for-profit health system which, 30 years later, resulted in free health services for all its citizens which is integrated with national social and economic development. Life expectancy in Cuba is higher than that of the US (72.5 vs. 71.9). Health workers have eliminated polio, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and diphtheria. Malnutrition incidence amount 1-15 years olds is 0.7% compared with 5% in the US. The Cuban health system began in the 1960s as a curative system based in hospitals but shifted during the 1970s and 1980s to a primary health care system based in communities. It consists of 6 hierarchical, interlocking levels: national health institutes and hospital centers (quaternary care-super specialty), provincial hospitals (tertiary care-high specialty), municipal hospitals (secondary care-specialty), area health centers (primary or community care) serving 25,000-30,000 people, sector polyclinics serving 4000-5000 people, and minipolyclinics served by a family physician team (family physician, nurse, and social worker) covering 600-700 people. The family physician team strategy has strengthened disease surveillance and completed information about health status and characteristics of neighborhoods. Neighborhood residents determine their own health care and protection. In fact, volunteer brigades build minipolyclinics and housing for family physicians and nurses. Critics of the Cuban health care system claim that the physician-to-population ratio is too high and that it makes up too much of the gross national product (almost 15%). Yet even though the US health system is the largest industry in the US and it has achieved impressive technological advances, the health of millions of US citizens deteriorates. The US needs a system that provides just, equitable, and quality health care to all. Thus US social workers should actively work toward national health insurance and on service delivery models.
Key words
Administrative Personnel; Americas; Caribbean; Community Health Services; Community Participation; Cuba; Delivery Of Health Care; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Goals; Health; Health Personnel; Health Services; Human Rights; Latin America; Medicine; National Health Services; North America; Northern America; Organization And Administration; Physicians; Planning; Policy; Policymakers; Preventive Medicine; Primary Health Care; Social Policy; Social Problems; Social Workers; United States
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Delivery of Health Care
/
Health Policy
/
Health Services Accessibility
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
/
Patient_preference
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
/
Caribe
/
Cuba
Language:
En
Journal:
Soc Work
Year:
1990
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United States