Health Care Around the World: Cuba

The U.S. recently ended economic sanctions against Cuba, and many have either praised or criticized the largest Caribbean island’s world-famous health-care system for years.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) says Cuba’s health-care system “is an example for all countries of the world.”

The UMHS Endeavour looks at health care in Cuba, from how it works to what is available. We will examine both positive and negative aspects of the country’s system, and what future doctors at American and Caribbean medical schools should know.

Praise from World Health Organization

Ever since the U.S. posed economic sanctions against Cuba when Fidel Castro rose to power in 1959, the island nation has had very limited resources. However, as the Huffington Post pointed out in an article last year “Cuba’s Health Care System: A Model for the World” by Salim Lamrani, the country’s health system is “recognized worldwide for its excellence and its efficiency.”

The Huffington Post quoted Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, after a July 2014 visit to Havana. “Cuba is the only country that has a health-care system closely linked to research and development,” Ms. Chan said. “This is the way to go, because human health can only improve through innovation."

Preventive medicine is the basis of care in Cuba.

Some of the other highlights of Cuban health care noted by the Huffington Post article include the following:

• “With an infant mortality rate of 4.2 per thousand births, the Caribbean island is the best performer on the continent and in the Third World generally. This is also demonstrated by the quality of its health-care system and the impact it has on the well-being of children and pregnant women.”
• “The infant mortality rate in Cuba is lower than it is in the United States and is among the lowest in the world.”
• “With a life expectancy of 78 years, Cuba is one of the best performers on the American continent and in the Third World, achieving results similar to those of most developed nations. On the average, Cubans live 30 years longer than their Haitian neighbors."
• “In 2025, Cuba will have the highest proportion of its population over the age of 60 in all of Latin America.”

In addition, this year Cuba made news with its lung-cancer drug Cimavax. The vaccine was created to treat lung-cancer patients in Cuba and has been successful at targeting a specific hormone “that can encourage tumors to grow.” It may soon be available for use in the USA.

Map of Cuba: CIA/Wikimedia Commons

Other Basics of Cuban Health Care

The Cuban government operates a national health system, assuming all financial and administrative responsibilities, according to Wikipedia. All hospitals and doctors’ offices are government-run. There are no private clinics.

Volunteerism by medical professionals has been ongoing, author Judy Stone said in an article in Forbes magazine.

“Cuba has a long-standing history of international volunteerism and medical diplomacy, via its ejercito de batas blancas (army of white coats),” Ms. Stone wrote. “Cuba has 50,000 health care workers deployed throughout the world, both in underserved areas and as emergency response teams.”

Forbes said Cuban doctors have provided cataract surgery throughout South America, “restoring vision to almost 3.5 million over the years,” and in exchange the nation received political capital, oil subsidies and funding. Cubans helped fight malaria in Africa and rushed to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to give first aid and the subsequent cholera epidemic. Cuban doctors were also sent to West Africa to help treat patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

The Downside of Cuban Health Care:

Because Cuba is a Communist country, salaries for doctors are shockingly low. Al Jazeera reported this year that Cuban doctors are paid between $30 and $50 U.S. per month.

In addition, the U.S. economic sanctions have made it difficult for doctors to get the latest medical equipment. A story on Al Jazeera’s website, “Cuba’s medical magicians,” discussed how a doctor operating on a woman with a serious bronchial ailment had to literally suck fluid from her lungs with his mouth via a plastic hose inserted down her throat because Cuba does not have access to U.S.-produced medical equipment.

“I couldn't believe my doctor did that," the patient told Al Jazeera. “"It was so disgusting and I told him that. He said, 'It was the only way I could save you, so I did what I had to do.' "

While many praise medicine in Cuba, there are also many critics of the Cuban health-care system. The website  Hotair.com blasts the country’s medical practices in the February 2015 article “Shock report: Cuba is not the medical paradise advertised."

“According to a study conducted by the group International SOS ranking every nation on Earth for the risks associated with seeking health care inside their borders, Cuba was among the many “high risk” (colored orange) nations for visitors who happen to fall ill while traveling abroad,” author Noah Rothman wrote on Hotair.com. “In fact, travelers are more likely to receive proper medical care in nations like the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and Colombia than they are to get sound care in Cuba.”

Mr. Rothman cites an Al Jazeera story form back in 2012, quoting the story, written by a former Cuban resident, Lucia Newman.

“Many Cubans complain that top-level government and Communist Party officials have access to VIP health treatment, while ordinary people must queue from dawn for a routine test, with no guarantee that the allotted numbers will not run out before it is their turn,” Ms. Newman wrote in the Al Jazeera story. “The system is free, but it is neither fast nor efficient for two important reasons. One is obviously the lack of financial resources, and the other – which is related to the first – is the ‘export’ of doctors, nurses and dentists in exchange for hard currency.”

Ms. Newman wrote in Al Jazeera that many Cuban doctors simply leave the country for more lucrative jobs abroad and are considered deserters.

(Top photo) A classic car on the streets of Havana, Cuba. Photo: Gildemax/Wikimedia Commons

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