Learn more about the participation of Cubans in the Mais Médicos program

USA attacked extinct cooperation of Brazil with Cuba in the medical field

Attacked by the United States (USA) on Wednesday (13), the Mais Médicos program records high popular assessment by providing basic health professionals to more than 4,000 Brazilian municipalities and has benefited, since the creation in 2013, more than 66.6 million people. The data are from the Ministry of Health (MS).

The Cubans represented, by 2018, most of the doctors of the program. Currently, they are 10% of more than 26,000 professionals working at Mais Médicos. In all, Cuba, a country recognized by the high public health rates, today maintains 24,000 doctors in 56 countries.

The president of the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Abrasco), Rômulo Paes, told Agência Brasil that the program is a success and the collaboration of Cubans was fundamental, especially in the early years.

“There was a reduction in the deficit of access to primary care of about 56% in several Brazilian municipalities. There was improvement of the doctor-patient relationship; in the continuity of treatments, because there was a lot of abandonment, especially of neglected diseases. There was also a reduction in hospitalization by causes avoided in areas where these doctors worked.”

In the first year of Mais Médicos alone, the coverage of primary health care increased from 10.8% to 24.6% of the population. Primary care is where about 80% of health problems are concentrated.

Yesterday, the US State Department announced the revocation of the visas of Brazilian government officials, former employees of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and their families. The reason would be complicity with the forced work of the Cuban government through the Mais Médicos do Brasil program.

Abrasco President Rômulo Paes has assessed that US action has nothing to do with health, but it is a way to achieve other Washington foreign policy goals.

“In 2013, when the more doctors start, Cuba already had such cooperation with 103 countries. Including Ukraine, Russia, Portugal, Spain and a lot of African and Asian countries. Is it a lie that Brazil had some kind of exceptionality. What are they going to punish the 103 countries? They will punish Spain, Portugal and Ukraine?

The expert recalled that the island has, in many indicators, a better health situation than the US, despite being a poor country. For him, the White House tries to resurrect an old controversy after negative repercussions here in Brazil of tariff against part of Brazilian imports.

Histle to Cuba

The controversy point with the US government (USA), which justified to remove the visa from Ministry of Health officials (MS), is the participation of Cuban doctors in the program via cooperation with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Cooperation lasted from 2013 to 2018.

The US has been imposing, for over 60 years, a hard economic blockade on the Caribbean island with the objective of changing the country’s political regime, established after the 1959 Revolution.

Because the export of doctors is one of Cuba’s main ways to get resources against the blockade, Donald Trump’s government has tried, since the beginning of its second term, to embarrass countries that receive Cuban professionals.

Employees from Caribbean countries such as São Vicente Y Granadinas, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago left Cuba’s agreements after criticism of the US against medical partnerships.

Cuba has had this cooperation program since the 1960s. Throughout history, 605,000 doctors from Cuba have acted in 165 nations.

Countries such as Portugal, Ukraine, Russia and Spain, Algeria and Chile have received Cuban doctors over 60 years. The data are from the Ministry of Health of Cuba.

Cubans at Mais Médicos

Brazilian doctors have always been a priority in the program and foreign professionals, including the Cubans, were summoned when Brazil professionals did not occupy the vacancies.

Generally, medical posts were vacant in municipalities and localities with less health care.

Also at the beginning of the program, in June 2014, 11,300 Cubans worked in the program of a total of 17,500 doctors, representing 64% of the total of professionals. At the end of cooperation, in June 2018, Cubans were 8.5 thousand out of 16,800 hired professionals, representing 50%.

Currently, there are still 2,600 Cubans who work for Mais Médicos, representing about 10% of the total. However, participation is no longer via PAHO, but through edicts open to all foreigners who want to occupy the vacancies not filled by Brazilians. Currently, 26,000 doctors work at Mais Médicos, being 22,700 Brazilians.

Positive evaluation

Created to provide medical assistance in hard -to -reach places or with few professionals, such as the interior of the Amazon and urban peripheries, the program had wide acceptance of the benefited public.

A survey from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the Institute for Social, Political and Economic Research (IPESPE) – with approximately 14,000 interviews – found that 81% of patients treated were low -income. Of the total, 95% said they were satisfied with the program. From 0 to 10, they gave a grade 8.4. Among the indigenous, the average was 8.7.

Scientific study published by PAHO shows that the performance of Cuban doctors was well evaluated, with emphasis on the humanized medical-user relationship, characterized by listening, attention and dialogue.

“Users highlighted the constant presence of doctors in the UBS, a situation that differed from the prior to the program, indicating that, even in ‘complete’ teams, there was no fulfillment of the workload of these professionals.

Important result was the decrease in waiting time for consultations. Users referred to the language as a barrier, softened by the use of communicational strategies in teams, ”the international organization said.

Originally published by Agência Brasil on 08/14/2025

By Lucas Pordeus León – Reporter of Agência Brasil – Brasília

Edition: Denise Griesinger