ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the ideals of a Soviet socialist health system in the immediate post-revolutionary period as follows: comprehensive, qualified medical care, available to everyone in the population, a single, unified service provided by the state, a free service, and full workers’ participation in the health service. The development of specialist health services for industrial workers and mothers and children in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s drive for industrialisation fits such a model well. The health services were quite explicitly directed towards industrial effort. The modern Soviet health service is by and large state-provided and free at the point of consumption. Access and distribution are determined by need, in accordance with central planning norms. The chapter examines the Soviet health service in three areas: needs, services, finance. A major determinant of legitimate medical need is the supply of medical resources.
