The ban on U.S. subsidiary trade in 1992 prohibited Cuba from purchasing food from U.S. corporate subsidiaries and imposed a licensing requirement for the sale of medicines and medical supplies to Cuba. Cuba cannot get spare parts for the U.S. equipment it has. AAWH surveyed 12 U.S. pharmaceutical and medical supply companies. Ten stated that licensing red tape kept them from fulfilling Cuba's desire to purchase goods. The U.S. licensing process creates delays of weeks to months to years.
Delays cost lives.
In one instance Cuban cardiologists diagnosed a heart attack patient with a ventricular arrhythmia. He required an implantable defibrillator to survive. Though the U.S. firm CPI, which then held a virtual monopoly on the device, expressed a willingness to make the sale, the U.S. government denied a license for it. Two months later the patient died. Cuba's water supply system is built with U.S. manufactured parts.