Lessons From Cuba’s National Health System

Kudos to Keck and Reed for their excellent article on Cuba’s National Health System.¹ Their well-researched comprehensive review highlights the progress that Cuba has made—with limited resources over the past 60 years—in setting and implementing appropriate health priorities, promoting primary health care, focusing on vulnerable groups in the population, building community support, and improving health outcomes.

As Keck and Reed clearly illustrate, the experience in Cuba has important lessons for the United States in setting health policy goals, integrating public health into clinical medicine, providing universal access, evaluating process and outcomes, and improving education for future physicians and other health professionals.