Resumen

CASTELL-FLORIT SERRATE, Pastor; GISPERT ABREU, Estela de los Ángeles  y  LOZANO LEFRAN, Anabel. Universal health coverage and conciliation of criteria on the basis of Cuban experience. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2015, vol.41, suppl.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0864-3466.

The right to health is a fundamental value of health coverage; hence, reductionist thoughts and actions jeopardize health promotion and effective protection leading to poor coverage and to difficulties in the social and human development. The present paper was intended to contribute criteria about the present situation of universal health coverage and their conciliation for common action on the basis of the Cuban experience. It started with the internal conceptualization of universal coverage by WHO to state that the obligation of preserving or restoring health and the provision of human and financial resources should come from the sectors of the society and the economy, with the technical support of the health sector and shared leadership. The situation of the universal coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean shows that without the implementation of actions to improve the health system, it is not possible for the economic growth to reduce health inequalities. The Cuban experience shows that intersectorial work in the field of primary health care is the adequate health technology to control the social determinants of health at every historical time and the permanent improvement of the health indicators. Today's challenge is to keep on identifying the intersectoral actions to be carried out within the setting of aged population and low birth rates, to improve the intersectoral work for health in the present socioeconomic context and to continue assuring the universal health coverage with the full involvement of the society.

Palabras clave : health; right to health; universal health coverage; society; intersectorial work.