Health Tourism
Further information: Healthcare in CubaAs well as receiving traditional tourism revenues, Cuba attracts health tourists, generating revenues of around $40m a year for the Cuban economy. Cuba has been a popular health tourism destination for more than 20 years. In 2005 more than 19,600 foreign patients traveled to Cuba for a wide range of treatments including eye-surgery, neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease, and orthopaedics. Many patients are from Latin America although medical treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, often known as night blindness, has attracted many patients from Europe and North America.
An Oct 2007 Miami Herald story addressed the high quality of health care that Canadian and American medical tourism patients receive in Cuba.
Some complaints have arisen that foreign "health tourists" paying with dollars receive a higher quality of care than Cuban citizens. Former leading Cuban neurosurgeon and dissident Dr. Hilda Molina asserts that the central revolutionary objective of free, quality medical care for all has been eroded by Cuba's need for foreign currency. Molina says that following the economic collapse known in Cuba as the Special Period, the Cuban Government established mechanisms designed to turn the medical system into a profit-making enterprise, thus creating a disparity in the quality of healthcare services between Cubans and foreigners.
Read more about this topic: Tourism In Cuba
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