The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of all its citizens.<1> There are no private hospitals or clinics as all health services are government-run. The present Minister for Public Health is José Ramón Balaguer.
An overall improvment in terms of disease and infant mortality rates was observed in the 1960s.<2>
AIDS is only one-sixth as common on a per-capita basis as in the United States.<3> Like the rest of the Cuban economy, Cuban medical care suffered following the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991; the stepping up of the US embargo against Cuba at this time also had an effect.<4> Cuba has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the region, with the average citizen living to 78.8 years old<3> (in comparison to the United States' 78.1 years<5>).
In 2007, Cuba announced that it has undertaken computerizing and creating national networks in Blood Banks, Nephrology and Medical Images. Cuba is the second country in the world with such a product, only preceded by France. Cuba is preparing a Computerized Health Register, Hospital Management System, Primary Health Care, Academic Affairs, Medical Genetic Projects, Neurosciences, and Educational Software. The aim is to maintain quality health service free for the Cuban people, increase exchange among experts and boost research-development projects. An important link in wiring process is to guarantee access to Cuba's Data Transmission Network and Health Website (INFOMED) to all units and workers of the national health system. <8>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Cuba