Cuba’s highly-touted healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, and the communist Castro dictatorship knows it. But it looks the other way at the only thing keeping it barely afloat: corruption.
Cuban independent journalist Laura Sarmiento Perez explains in Diario de Cuba:
The theft of medicines, charging for services, and private operations: the reality of Cuba’s public health system
The government knows it, but the implosion of the health system means that its appeals to combat illegalities fall on deaf ears.
The search on the informal market for medicines that have disappeared from state pharmacies, and payments for medical care and treatments, including operations, carried out at public hospital facilities, have already become part of Cubans’ daily lives.
The new Cuban Public Health Law, 2023, states that “among the rights of users are free access to care, protection, and recovery services; as well as those medicines and health products or supplies necessary to promote, preserve and restore health, through the regulations established in this regard.” The health system’s implosion, however, has forced the population to pay for what are supposedly free services to deal with their medical emergencies.
The government knows this, as does the entire country. On July 17, in the National Assembly of Popular Power, after hearing a report by the sector’s minister, José Ángel Portal Miranda, the representatives agreed that to “address and prevent crime, illegalities and acts of social indiscipline in the Cuban Public Health sector, collective responsibility for services and resources is essential.”
The Public Health crisis is reflected in the long waiting lists for surgeries, and procedures like the extraction of wisdom teeth, due to the shortage of medical supplies and the state of hospital facilities. The desperation of those affected and the government’s inability to respond to them leads them to seek “alternative” solutions.
“Among the most affected specialties is Stomatology. There is nothing at the clinics, and when something comes in we try to help family and friends,” said a dental clinic assistant who asked to remain anonymous.
“Patients come with the anesthesia…and we do the work of extracting the tooth, or doing the filling, as the case may be. Prosthetists are the most affected, as materials are expensive and almost nothing comes in,” she explained.
The existence of illegal private practices was recognized by Minister Portal in his remarks before the National Assembly. He referred to them as “an issue that not only violates the most elementary ethics and principles of the national health system, but also affects the quality and transparency of care.”
Katia, a clerk at a small business, and her mother Alina, are clients of a private dentist in Santiago de Cuba. “I got some very high-quality dental implants,” Alina said. “I started with the top part. They are fixed, not mobile prostheses, and they cost me 4,000 pesos. Now I have to save up to get the bottom done. The prices are high, but the state clinics don’t have the materials, nor do they do work of this quality.”
According to Alina, the doctor who treats her is a young entrepreneur who resigned from his position in the government health system. “You can choose the color of the new teeth, so that they resemble yours. I took my daughter and she had a wisdom tooth extracted, which cost 1,500 pesos. When she gets paid, she’ll have the other one extracted.” She explained that the doctor buys material imported from the United States to Havana.
The purchase and sale of supplies and medicines in Cuba is a common practice on social media, where one find all kinds of medications, anesthetics, sutures, and wheelchairs, among other items. Permitting these offerings is the authorization of “the importation of medicines not of a commercial nature, without limits in terms of their value, exempt from the payment of the Customs tax on food, toiletries, medicines and medical supplies,” legislation in force until September 2024.
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Doesn’t matter, as long as the ‘revolution” can stay afloat somehow. Remember, the only people who matter are those in the ruling class, and they can get whatever they need. The savages might as well be insects.