Health care: lessons from China and Cuba.

Health has improved in Cuba and China during the past quarter of a century. Some of the improvements in health occurred as economic conditions improved in both countries, but there are other similarities of health care delivery in China and Cuba. Collective activity plays an important role in health care in both nations; both do health planning centrally, but local communities control the daily activities of the health services that they use. Techniques that have improved health in underdeveloped nations might be applied in underserved areas of the United States.