A Cuban doctor identified as Roxangela San Martín published a public complaint about the salary precariousness faced by healthcare professionals in Cuba this Friday, with a phrase that encapsulates the situation of thousands of doctors on the island: the salary is not even enough to buy a package of chicken.
"Imagine studying medicine for nine years of your life—six years for your degree and four years for your specialty—only to end up not practicing your profession because the salary is not enough to buy even a pack of chicken," San Martín wrote in a text image on a magenta background that accompanied his post.
In the same message, the doctor revealed that her mother, also a physician with two specialties and 34 years of service in the sector, retired with only 3,000 pesos monthly, an amount that does not even reach five dollars at the current informal exchange rate.
San Martín also recounted that, while trying to support herself with her own business, she received a visit from an inspector of the DIS (State Inspection Directorate), who pointed her out with disdain to others with the phrase "that is the doctor."
"My post is to show how inverted the pyramid is and how undervalued we professionals are in today’s Cuba; it addresses the loss of respect and the loss of values," wrote the doctor, who acknowledged having promised not to use her social media to report issues that the authorities ignore, but stated that "the situations do not allow me to do so."
The complaint comes at a time when the regime has just approved the Resolution 17/2026 with new salaries for the health sector, effective from July with actual payment starting this month of August.
However, the amounts remain laughable: a newly graduated doctor will earn 7,045 pesos per month and a second-degree specialist 8,880 pesos, which is equivalent to between 10.5 and 13.2 dollars at the informal exchange rate. Another Cuban doctor described this increase as a "global shame", pointing out that the raise barely exceeds ten dollars a month.
The basic basket for two people in Havana exceeds 41,000 pesos per month, a staggering gap compared to any official scale medical salary.
The case of San Martín is not the only one. On Friday, the doctor Yasmany Figueroa Chaviano, a Doctor of Optometry and Vision Sciences residing in Santo Domingo, Villa Clara, reported that he and his family were "dying of hunger" and that he had resorted to selling clothes and shoes in order to eat at least once a day.
In May, another doctor with a specialty and teaching position left the profession because her salary was insufficient to feed her child.
The Food Monitor Program reported in June that 96.91% of the Cuban population lacks adequate access to food and that 33.9% of households had someone who went to bed hungry in the last 30 days.
This situation is compounded by the Decree 160 of 2026, which shuts the door on private medicine in Cuba and reserves all healthcare activities for the National Health System.
Signed by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz on July 22 and published in the Official Gazette, the decree will take effect next Tuesday, August 4, eliminating the only legal avenue left for doctors to supplement their income outside of the state.
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