Resumen

MARTINEZ CALVO, Silvia. Universal health coverage and epidemiological guidance of the Cuban health system. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2015, vol.41, suppl.1. ISSN 0864-3466.

The PAHO Strategic Plan 2014-2019 recognizes the universal health coverage as an articulating pillar for the health systems and the reiterated social determinant approach. Before that, the Health Agenda for the Americas had set up guidelines that were incorporated to the four strategies required to develop universal coverage. This paper made a brief description of these strategies that also support the universal access, and analyzed the implementation of the two strategies that are more linked to the epidemiological guidance of services. The national health care system is a universal system and beyond any doubt, the epidemiological practice in health services have generated positive results in terms of changes of risk, disease and harm profiles in our population. However, there have been identified significant gaps to reach universal access, to fulfill its three basic requirements and to consolidate the strategies supporting the universal health coverage under the current conditions. The management's decision is then indispensable to advance these recovery processes and their implementation depends almost completely on this decision.

Palabras clave : universal coverage; universal access; epidemiological services; strategies.