Medical Scholarships for Working Class Americans Provide by the Republic of Cuba

[LeftyHenry]

The people of Cuba have extended, to students from the US, the opportunity to study medicine on a full scholarhship at the prestigious Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba. IFCO/Pastors for Peace coordinates this program in the United States.

Applicants should:

* Be US citizens
* Be between the ages of 18 and 30 at the time of registration
* Be physically and mentally fit
* Come from the humblest and neediest communities in the US
* Be committed to practice medicine in poor and under served US communities
after graduation.

For an applications contact:
Interreligious Foundation
for Community Organization
402 West 145th Street
New York, NY 10031
tel. 212-926-5757
email: lasm@igc.org

Here is the brochure: Cuban Medical School scholarship program brochure (you'll need Adobe Reader to view this, free software, so google if you don't have)

For more detailed information please go to:
Medical school main page
Frequently Asked Questions
Medical School Curriculm, General Plan of Studies

For those that don't know Spanish, you will be given an intensive spanish training course before you begin. Anyone who has seriously thought about going to medical school but can't afford the over $100,000 in costs should definitely apply. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

[1069]

Awesome find, Henry!
I hope young people will take advantage of this terrific opportunity!

 

[Morrow]

Is that school accredited in the United States?

 

[LeftyHenry]

Is that school accredited in the United States?

Not sure. I found this on a socialist forum I read. I would click on the info.

Cuba sends brigades of doctors and surgeons around the world providing free healthcare for exploited and oppressed working class people with medical conditions. I think the point of this may be to set up a brigade to serve the millions and millions of Americans who are without access to healthcare.

 

[Morrow]

Not sure. I found this on a socialist forum I read. I would click on the info.

Cuba sends brigades of doctors and surgeons around the world providing free healthcare for exploited and oppressed working class people with medical conditions. I think the point of this may be to set up a brigade to serve the millions and millions of Americans who are without access to healthcare.

Well if they aren't licensed to practice medicine in the United States then that brigade of doctors will be serving the prison populations. The wikipedia page appears to indicate that it is accredited though. So I guess I answered my own question.

 

[1069]

Not sure. I found this on a socialist forum I read. I would click on the info.

Cuba sends brigades of doctors and surgeons around the world providing free healthcare for exploited and oppressed working class people with medical conditions. I think the point of this may be to set up a brigade to serve the millions and millions of Americans who are without access to healthcare.

Yes; immediately after Katrina, Cuba offered to send 1,600 medics, field hospitals and 83 tons of medical supplies to help ease the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans.
The White House flatly rejected the offer as "unnecessary", despite a public statement by prominent US physicians, medical educators, international health experts and a former U.S. surgeon general associated with MEDICC, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba*, which begged Bush to reconsider.
"Up to this point, there been a clear need for more medical help for Katrina victims," said Peter Bourne, MD, Chairman of MEDICC and former special adviser on health in the Carter White House and former Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations. "The Cuban physicians are accustomed to working in difficult third-world conditions without the resources and supplies most of us are accustomed to. Since they are just an hour away, it is a shame that they have not been allowed to join our committed medical corps already."
"Cuba has been recognized by the UN, Oxfam and other international organizations as a leader in disaster response, expertise that could be saving lives now," said Doctor William Keck, former long-time director of the Akron, Ohio Department of Public Health.

The Bush Administration's response to this plea?
“When it comes to Cuba, we have one message for Fidel Castro: He needs to offer the people of Cuba their freedom.”

link
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*Between 1998 and 2004, MEDICC has provided medical electives in Cuba for nearly 1000 students and faculty from 118 U.S. medical, public health and nursing schools.

 

[LeftyHenry]

yeah I remember very clearly finding out about that and hearing him say that and seeing the images of the aftermath of hurricane katrina and being outraged.

 

[Feela]

Seems like a great gesture by Cuba, but I can't help thinking the Cubans could better use their energy elsewhere.

 

[Nietz1950]

Yes, Cuba has had this program for some time, and the US did allow you to practice in the states. As a condition of acceptance, Cuba accepted only poor individuals from the US who would return and practice in their home communities. You had to be someone who would not normally be able to afford medical school and you had to practice in an underserved region.

I am pretty sure Bush stopped this program in his first term. Students under the program used to be granted travel rights to Cuba.

 

[bandaidwoman]

Any medical student who graduates from a medical school in the United States can have their student loans paid off by serving in underserved areas already.

ACP Observer, March 2007 - Loan repayment programs offer debt relief in exchange for service

Not saying the cuban offer is not a great find but I think I would rather not deal with the hassel of being labelled a "foreign medical grad" in terms of the extra training and licenscing it takes to return to America to practice medicine.

 

[Nietz1950]

I think the hardest part is actually coming up with the loans and money for medical school in the first place. You cannot work through medical school and federal aid isn't likely to cover the $50-60K annual cost alone. Universities and private lenders know you aren't likely to complete a program if you come from a financial "high risk" background .

Those "Northern Exposure" programs don't seem to offer any repayment assistance until you've already completed residency... but at this point you are already earning 6 figures anyway. They seem more like incentives to normalize wages in regions that don't really pay very well in the first place.

I agree this probably isn't a program for everybody. Cuba specializes in diseases and conditions that concern developing countries, not the industrialized world. I was wrong when I said I thought Bush cancelled the program - I remembered he had attempted to do so, but there was a great deal of criticism and this student exemption was permitted.

 

[bandaidwoman]

I think the hardest part is actually coming up with the loans and money for medical school in the first place. You cannot work through medical school and federal aid isn't likely to cover the $50-60K annual cost alone. Universities and private lenders know you aren't likely to complete a program if you come from a financial "high risk" background .

Those "Northern Exposure" programs don't seem to offer any repayment assistance until you've already completed residency... but at this point you are already earning 6 figures anyway. They seem more like incentives to normalize wages in regions that don't really pay very well in the first place.

I agree this probably isn't a program for everybody. Cuba specializes in diseases and conditions that concern developing countries, not the industrialized world. I was wrong when I said I thought Bush cancelled the program - I remembered he had attempted to do so, but there was a great deal of criticism and this student exemption was permitted.

I did fine. My parent's dual income was less than 50,000. I got a forty thousand dollar scholarship but I also easily borrowed the 50 k a year that I needed. Still paying it off of course:mrgreen: But that was over 13 years ago so can't imagine how much it is with cost of living. Residency paid less than minimum wage. I made $28,000 a year working 100 plus hours a week. By the end of residency I owed even more borrowing for a car ( I rode a bike most of med school and did my clerkships in south central Los Angles, New Haven Connecticut etc, where I lived at the hospital or took mass transit).

So I owed over $100,000 and had maxed out my credit cards ( at 28,000 a year before taxes living in atlanta is not cheap) which i used sometimes to pay my car payments!) Almost joined the NHS but then I met my husband here and oh well, the loan burden was worth shouldering so I could live with my husband.

My junior partner had served in west virginia for 3 years to pay off his loans from duke university, he comes from a single mother household making less than 30,000 a year. Duke gave him the 70,000 a year he needed in loans no problem.