Cuban Education and Healthcare expenditures grow nearly five-fold in 2021

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 18 ( ACN ) Cuba began 2021 with a significant devaluation of its domestic currency, going from an exchange rate in the state sector of one USD to one Cuban peso to 1x24, which had an impact on the projection of budgetary expenditures for the current year, substantially higher than initially projected for the previous one.

From 73.2 billion pesos foreseen in the State Budget to be accrued in 2020- modified by the impact of COVID-19-, the figure rises in the current year to 374.9 billion pesos.

In spite of this, the amounts allocated to Education and Health maintain a similar participation in the current expenses of the budgeted activity, that is, in the first of the sectors it continues to represent 24 percent and in the second, 28 percent.

Last year, the expenses foreseen for Education were close to 11 billion pesos and for Health and Social Assistance 12.7 billion, being now 58 billion pesos and 67 billion pesos, respectively.

In the case of education for 2021, it supports the enrollment of the 2020-2021 school year and the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year at all levels, including special schools, an expression that in terms of training, attention and social insertion no child, adolescent and young person is excluded, as explained by Meisi Bolaños Weiss, Minister of Finance and Prices in the VI Ordinary Period of the National Assembly of People's Power.

For higher education, as a result of the implementation of the improvement at this level, it has been foreseen the entrance of 180 thousand students to university studies, whose expenses for its operation have the corresponding support.

The funds for Public Health and Social Assistance corroborate "as an inalienable human right in our country, the access to health services and that all the Cuban people without distinction, receive a universal, free and quality care," Bolaños Weiss said.

The financial resources allocated to this sector guarantee:

- 174.2 thousand medical consultations

-approximately 12.9 million consultations in hospitals and institutes are supported at the secondary and tertiary level

-91.5 million consultations in primary health care
-expenses that cover 1.45 million hospital admissions

The process of monetary re-ordering that began on January 1st seeks, among other aspects, the elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuitousness, however, it respects the humanist character of the Revolution and defends the main social programs.

Although many of the services and products in a general sense increased in value due to the devaluation of the Cuban peso, the increase in funds to maintain health and education benefits (both free) is a sign of this.

An example of the respect for this principle is that the fees for the service of kindergartens and semi-boarding schools do not suffer modifications with the current process; the same amount that until now was made by the family for the first of these services is maintained (maximum 40 pesos), and for the semi-boarding school seven pesos.

Mothers with two or more children also maintain the subsidized payment, even though a national income reform was carried out that sets the minimum wage in the country at 2,100 pesos.