Abstract

THIELMANN, Klaus  and  ILLNAIT FERRER, José. Crisis and health. Health in crisis?. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2012, vol.38, n.2, pp. 278-285. ISSN 0864-3466.

The global financial and economic crisis also affects health because the health services increasingly depend on the market nowadays. Health is considered a commodity and becomes expensive due to rising prices of diagnostic and therapeutic products and services. At the same time, this exacerbates the inequality of access to health care between rich and poor countries and among the citizens within countries of neoliberal economic orientation. Health care turns into an additional burden for countries where the medical health services are financed by the society as a whole. The growing impact of chronic non-communicable diseases calls for a proactive and health-oriented strategy based on the health improvement through its determinants as a contribution to the efficiency and sustainability of medical care services and to equal access wherever is required. A project called 'Individual and Social Health Determinants in Family Medicine' was started in Old Havana, which is intended to demonstrate the feasibility and benefit of a health driven medical strategy. It builds on the genuine preventive orientation of Cuban medical practice, education and training.

Keywords : Determinants; health; economic crisis.

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