ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts a review of health and health care in Latin America. This is a huge and diverse region, stretching from the Mexico-United States border to Tierra del Fuego, and including the Caribbean. Some 450 million people live here. Countries and conditions differ, but in this chapter an overview of fundamental issues and common health themes is given. In particular, emphasis is placed on the national and international settings within which health and health care systems evolve. The development of health care programmes and social security systems in Latin America has been very much determined by changing economic, social and political conditions in the region. The majority of countries have evolved capitalist systems which depended on the availability of land for labour-intensive practices oriented towards the supply of primary products for export.
