Re-Evolution

(bell dinging) (lively music) (radio search) (news presenter) The revolution that began with Castro a fugitive ended when the flight of dictator Fulgencio Batista (news announcer) Unskilled farm labor.

The sugar crop began to grow sparse.

(Cray) Cuba's health and agricultural systems have had to adapt in the face of severe resource scarcity.

(radio search) At neighborhood clinics, we'll see what healthcare access means for everyday Cubans.

And in the fields, how organic agriculture is both a necessity and an innovation.

When a global pandemic comes to Cuba, food and Health are pushed to the limit one more time.

(radio) (President Obama) We can make this journey as friends.

(fanatics shouting) What is the Cuban dream?

I know what it is for me.

But what is it for you?

My name is Gail Reed.

I'm the executive editor of a scientific journal called MEDICC Review.

I became interested in Cuban health care because I was looking at the results.

I was looking at the results that Cuba was able to attain.

We did a study in the early 90s.

That was submitted later to congress and to the UN on the impact of the US embargo on health and food in Cuba.

We found something really shocking examples of how ordinary Cuban people had been affected.

(baby crying) It went on and on and on.

The next big revolution within the revolution in Cuba in health care was in the mid 1980s with the introduction of the family doctor and nurse program.

That put a doctor and nurse literally on every block in Cuba on every hillside.

As of the 1990s and into the 2000s there are over 10,000 family doctor and nurse offices dotting the entire country.

The statistical information, the data that is absorbed into the health system comes from the base, comes from the grassroots.

It's not estimates, it's real figures.

And that has a major impact on where you move resources even if they're scarce.

(sewing machine) So you can see this health system is very agile.

And I think that is what we have learned from Cuba over the years.

Not only have they put a big emphasis on primary health care, touted over and over again by the World Health Organization as critical, but they've also been able to make adjustments going forward as necessary to protect the health of people.

I certainly don't want to give the impression that the health system is running at 100% capacity.

It's not.

My name is Sarah Almusbahi, I'm from the United States.

We're here in Havana, Havana, Cuba on the outskirts of Havana.

ELAM is a school like no other.

The Latin American School of Medicine is a misnomer.

It's a worldwide school of medicine.

It's the largest school of medicine in the world.

I first got here, I remember I was so shook that I was sitting in a class with people from so many different places in the world.

How did I get here?

(wind and nature's sound) I have a bachelor's degree, I studied at Ohio State, international relations and diplomacy.

So most people look at that and are like, "Wait?

What?

Now you're in medical school?"

But, I'm in Cuba.

Our professors are doctors themselves.

Starting last semester, in first year, we've already been to consultorios and seen how things work and talk to doctors, talk to patients started shadowing is a lot of questions that you have to ask and you almost like become part of the family.

I keep being bombarded with things that also still surprise me.

Exchange is the way that you learn about people and yourself.

These graduates have something very special to contribute in the US context, I think.

they take this notion of service to their own communities.

While the successive US administrations are sanctioning Cuba, Cuba is turning out doctors who are actually serving in African American, Latino and poor communities across the United States.

Cuba is worried about people and Cuba does care about people and it doesn't matter where you come from.

My mom works at a supermarket.

My dad is on and off with jobs.

So if I hadn't had the opportunity to be here in Cuba, I don't think I would be able to go to medical school because when I graduate, I want to help where help is needed.

And in order to do that I can't be in financial debt.

Prevention works and it's proven, you know.

Cuba is a prime example of how impactful and how beneficial, prevention is They focus a lot on prevention here.

Because you're going to save money down the line.

(speaking Spanish) This is something that has been said over and over again, worldwide.

Prevention is the key to keeping healthcare sustainable.

This is a very resource constrained environment.

It means you put a premium on every resource.

Cuba's not only got a health system that covers the whole population, literally, but it has one of the big three biotech industries in the developing world.

And by the early 80s, Cuba had gotten a jump on most of the rest of the world in investing in biotech.

Diabetes in the case of the Cuban medication Heberprot-P is an area where US sanctions have really been a boomerang.

We don't have access to this novel, biotech medication that has been shown to reduce amputation risk by over 70%.

(birds flying) (speaking Spanish) The health system is hurting in Cuba.

It needs to repair facilities, repair equipment, get more medicines into the pharmacies.

I think what we're facing in the United States is a level of medicine that is really astounding.

It's outstanding in the world.

The question is, how do we access it as ordinary Americans?

Let's keep people from getting sick.

And if you keep people from getting sick, that's better for the person, their family, their community, their workplace and the whole economy.

If we don't as a human race begin to cooperate We are going to see not only ourselves endangered as a species, but as we are already seeing the planet itself endangered.

No country is isolated.

We are seeing that and saw that with the coronavirus.

We're going to see that with other epidemics and pandemics as world moves ahead.

I know many many Cuban doctors and other health professionals who have served abroad.

They line up to serve abroad, they volunteer at every level of the health system.

We've noticed how the regime in Havana has taken advantage of the covid-19 pandemic to continue its exploitation of Cuban medical workers.

Governments accepting Cuban doctors must pay them directly.

Otherwise, when they pay the regime, they are helping the Cuban Government turn a profit on human trafficking.

The painting of Cuban physicians abroad as slaves and therefore encouraging, to put it mildly, other countries not to accept Cuban physicians or health professionals.

I think it's part of a much bigger effort on the part of this administration to deny critical funds to the Cuban economy.