Care Paradise'
By Brad Wilmouth | July 30, 2007 - 03:51 ET
On Sunday's CBS Evening News, correspondent Kelly Cobiella filed a
report about American medical students who are receiving the "gift" of a
free education from the Latin American School of Medicine, established
by former Cuban president Fidel Castro to train doctors for poor
communities. But, while entertaining suggestions from one student who
thought that Michael Moore's trip to Cuba for health care "proposed a
really good question about looking at our medical system and seeing what
things we need to change," the CBS correspondent also found that "Cuba
is no health care paradise," as she reported on "crumbling" hospitals,
doctors making $20 a month, and "shortages of just about everything from
drugs to high-tech equipment." (Transcript follows)
Cobiella began her report on the eight American students who are
graduating from the school, and talked to one student from New York
City. Cobiella: "Evelyn Erickson is from Washington Heights in New York
City, lured to Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine by the promise
of a free education, a gift of sorts from the Cuban government. Fidel
Castro started the school in 1999 to help fill a dire need for doctors
in Latin America. Students are trained at no cost in return for their
pledge to practice in poor communities back home."
The CBS correspondent informed viewers that students live in old army
barracks with "bunk beds, cold showers and a $4 a month stipend," where
they "learn about a much different health care system, documented in the
recent Michael Moore film Sicko, where all services are free, and
everyone is covered."
After a clip of Erickson contending that Cuba could offer lessons about
"things we need to change" in America, Cobiella poured some water over
any assumptions of utopia in Cuba. Cobiella: "Still, Cuba is no health
care paradise. The hospitals are crumbling. Doctors make about $20 a
month. And there are shortages of just about everything from drugs to
high-tech equipment."
Below is a complete transcript of Cobiella's story from the Sunday July
29 CBS Evening News:
RUSS MITCHELL: Eight Americans graduated from a foreign medical
school last week. In exchange for free tuition for six years, they
pledged to work in low-income neighborhoods back home. That might not be
big news except that the school we're talking about is in Cuba. Kelly
Cobiella paid a visit.
KELLY COBIELLA: It's graduation day at the world's largest medical
school. And among the sea of 2000 graduates in lab coats are eight
Americans, new doctors educated in communist Cuba. Does this bring back
memories?
EVELYN ERICKSON, Latin American Medical School Graduate: It does.
Anatomy class, you know, second year, I would sit in the front row.
COBIELLA: Evelyn Erickson is from Washington Heights in New York
City, lured to Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine by the promise
of a free education, a gift of sorts from the Cuban government. Fidel
Castro started the school in 1999 to help fill a dire need for doctors
in Latin America. Students are trained at no cost in return for their
pledge to practice in poor communities back home -- an offer extended to
a handful of U.S. students in 2001. This is a dorm?
ERICKSON: This is the dorm. You can see clothes hanging-
COBIELLA: It's a world away from the U.S. Home for Evelyn and her
fellow students was an old army baracks with bunk beds, cold showers and
a $4 a month stipend. And unlike the United States where students spend
four years in classrooms and labs, these students spend six years in
classrooms and clinics.
ERICKSON: They were calling me doctor, and I was like, no, no, no,
I'm not the doctor, I'm the medical student. But what really happens is
that we are the people that examine the patients every day from the very
beginning.
COBIELLA: They also learn about a much different health care
system, documented in the recent Michael Moore film Sicko, where all
services are free, and everyone is covered.
ERICKSON: I was one of the people that was there translating for
these patients when they came here to Cuba. And so I was actually there
hearing their stories. And I think it proposed a really good question
about looking at our medical system and seeing what things we need to
change.
COBIELLA: Still, Cuba is no health care paradise. The hospitals are
crumbling. Doctors make about $20 a month. And there are shortages of
just about everything from drugs to high-tech equipment. Do you think
you will be accepted as a doctor back in the United States with an
education from Cuba?
ERICKSON: I think so. I would like to believe that we will be.
COBIELLA: Evelyn and her fellow graduates face one final hurdle
before they can practice in the United States -- passing the U.S.
Medical Board Exams. But by the looks on their faces, they are not
worried a bit. Kelly Cobiella, CBS News, Havana, Cuba.
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