Cuban Health System Research Paper

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Cuba Health System Reforms
• Cuba - socialist country: World's last remaining socialist country following the Marxist-Leninist ideology. “Because Cuba has so few resources, prevention has become the only affordable means of keeping its population healthy.” Cuban health system is universal, free and accessible to all of its citizens. As was true of the other indigenous societies of the Americas, Cuban traditional medicine existed before the Spanish conquest. High status traditional practitioners were called Bohiques. After colonization, Cuban medicine followed the Spanish tradition. Chinese medicine has also been practiced in Cuba.
Milestones in Cuban Health System: 1959 Cuban Revolution
Foundation laid in 1960s:
 Rural Health …show more content…

It is fully integrated and controlled by the government and its ministries. It has achieved its mission of reducing the health divide between various socio-economic groups. The system is under constant evaluation to meet the needs of the population in the most cost efficient manner and has never strayed from its original focus. Even though Cuba had been politically isolated it has generated its new resources and has withstood international pressure to evolve a system and create internal competition. The result has been creation of new sources of revenue for the country but not at the cost of health of the citizens. Cuba spends around 8.8 % of its GDP on health care out of which 93% is public and 7% is out of pocket. (3) National health programs are implemented throughout country with limited scope for deviation.
Aspects of Public Health in …show more content…

 In 2001, 8 American students, all from low-income minority families, began their free medical education in Cuba, on the condition that they return to their communities for service.
 Cuba has the highest family physician-to population ratio in the world, and it has a family physician-per-patient ratio of approximately 1:600. In the United States, the average family physician-per-population ratio is approximately 1:3200

References:
1. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2001, 164(10): 1477and IFCO Medical School Scholarship Program @ Latin American School of Medicine
2. WHO 2011 updates, World Bank and the United Nations for

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