ABSTRACT
This essay employs the author's 1992 through 2010 in-country field research with Cuban citizens, particularly Afro-Cubans/Blacks/Afrodescendientes, and extensive documentary review to examine Cuba's national Public Healthcare Delivery System. The examination begins with a contextual summary of the island's three military struggles for national independence and sovereignty. Removal of most US business’ influences from the island after the revolution brought US-led economic trade embargoes and sanctions that produced sixty years of resource scarcity. This is the contemporary context of Cuba's healthcare system's ability to cope, innovate, and garner international data reports on its healthcare performance. Such reports reveal that on most indicators, the island regularly surpasses many highly developed nations and many others not under economic sanctions. The essay's final discussion is of the island's management of the COVID-19 crisis and its internal development of some five vaccines against the disease.
