In a recent interview for the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities’ website, MIMS.com, Dr. Emerito Jose A. Faraon, Assistant Professor at the College of Public Health (CPH) of the University of the Philippines Manila, offered his two cents on the proposed plans to imitate the Cuban health system. He stated, “While the Cuban heath care system is a model of an effective and efficient health system, it is not easy to fix our own health system and make it just like theirs.”

He then proceeded to list down some of the factors that may hinder us from fully adapting a Cuban-style healthcare system.

1. Differing Government Systems
As a communist country, Cuba places everything concerning social welfare within the government’s control. This allows for a more organized management and regulation of healthcare service distribution. This level of control would be more difficult to enact in a democratic country like the Philippines.

2. Population
The Cuban population in 2015 was recorded to be at around 11.2 million. This is a stark contrast to the Philippines’ population that same year which reached 102.4 million, almost 10x Cuba’s. As Secretary Ubial herself had relayed in the aforementioned conference, the ratio of doctor to patient is 1 : 33,000 in the Philippines, significantly greater than Cuba’s 1 : 1,075 ratio.

3. Geography
The geographical difference between the two countries plays a major factor on why one healthcare system is better executed than the other. Dr. Faraon said that “it is relatively easier to manage universal healthcare coverage in one continuous island of 11 million people than a country like the Philippines with more than 7,000 islands of more than 100 million people of diverse cultures and dialects.”

4. Human Resources
“We do not have the budget for the necessary human health resources needed to achieve the level of preventive health care that Cuba enjoys now,” Dr. Faraon stated. The ideal of having one doctor per barangay would be an uphill climb, considering that what we currently have is one doctor per municipality, which covers about 20-30 barangays. 35,000 doctors are needed to even out the odds, which we are still struggling to collate.

At the present state of things, aspiring for a Cuban-like system seems almost far-fetched. What worked for the Cubans may not necessarily work with us, given our differences in circumstance. While we may take on what they’ve been doing right, like a more solidified mental healthcare, DOH must look internally to create a new system better suited for our situation. The issues of national and local government corruption must first be dealt with before any step towards nationwide healthcare revisions can be made. As Dr. Faraon had said, “The hope is to strengthen primary healthcare in the smallest unit of government, which is what the Cuban health system model is all about. At present, this is not feasible.”