While depriving the healthcare system used by the vast majority of Cuban of adequate funding, the Cuban government has developed a closed, parallel healthcare system for the Communist Party elite, foreign 'health tourists', and others of the privileged few who can pay for medical services in hard currency. There is no deficit of hospital beds in the country and no Cuban is denied hospitalization in favor of a foreign patient. The vast majority of revenue generated by foreign patient medical services is reinvested in the Cuban healthcare system. In a recent interview, the Vice-Minister for Economic Affairs reported that 98.5 percent of gross income from foreign patient care stays within the health system. The hospital providing the service typically retains 60 percent of the funds and the remaining 40 percent goes into the national health budget.
Hospitals use their profits to upgrade the entire facility, used overwhelmingly by Cuban patients.
The portion of funds contributed to the national health care budget is used exclusively for purchase of medications, ambulances, equipment and supplies for medical services to the population. Hard currency earned from treating and selling medications to foreign patients is used to purchase medicines for Cuban patients who receive them free in hospitals and at subsidized prices in pharmacies. Cuban government diverts profits from medical exports to support and subsidize Cuba's biomedical research programs at the expense of primary care facilities. Cuba's biomedical research primarily benefits Cubans by producing vaccines domestically that Cuba would otherwise be unable to import. For example, the hepatitis-b recombinant vaccine, developed through genetic engineering, has made it possible for Cubans to be immunized against this strain of hepatitis, reducing the otherwise prohibitive cost of importing the vaccine from international manufacturers.