The cheapest elderly care plan comes to $176 a month, 14 times the average Cuban salary and more than 30 times the average pension of a retiree.
14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 4 April 2025 — “I’m going to give it to Eleguá,” says an elderly woman standing at the fence of the 13th of March old age home in Guanabacoa, stretching her hand between the bars and grabbing the money a passerby hands her. The charity doesn’t go unnoticed, and soon another hand, black and calloused, reaches out demanding a bill to save them from eating the “morronga” (morning snack) served downtown. Bordered by the reddish fence that marks the boundary between public and state property, the place looks more like a beggar’s shack than an old age home.
“Every time I go to the old age home, they call me and ask me to buy them coffee, and a cup costs 20 pesos, but that’s not the point,” says Aleida, who lives two blocks from the old age home. “They’re all dirty, they stink. It pains me to see the elderly like this, because we’ll all reach that age,” she confesses.
At age 50, a widow with no children, the Havana resident dedicates part of her time to helping “the old folks.” “Many of those who are there are here because they sold their house so their children could leave the country, hoping their lives would improve. The least I can do is bring them a thermos of coffee and some bread sometimes. I’d even like to bathe them because they break my heart.”
The woman suspects that more or less all of the island’s state-run old age homes are in a similar condition, but a few days ago she read in the press that 25% of Cubans are over 60 years old. The number confirmed her suspicion: there are too many elderly people and no one to care for them, which has led to a surge in cases of neglect and vulnerability among the elderly.
“When my grandmother fell ill four years ago, I went to the Ministry of Labor to request a caregiver. They told me they didn’t have anyone because, even though the demand for staff was high, they couldn’t afford to pay them,” Yisel says.
As she explained to 14ymedio, her job meant she couldn’t dedicate herself to caring for her grandmother, and the fact that the elderly woman had family members made it even more difficult to hire a caregiver. “Obviously, elderly people who lived alone were more likely to receive someone. If the family member couldn’t care for the elderly person, they had to justify their situation very clearly. When they finally assigned someone, families typically paid them a little more because their salary was a pittance.”
Yisel followed all the necessary procedures, but she couldn’t get a caregiver assigned to her grandmother. For a while, she managed the situation as best she could, but after a year, she had to admit her relative to a psychiatric hospital, where a companion was required.
Once again, it was impossible for her to stay, so she contacted some registered nurses who no longer worked for Public Health and who were caring for the elderly in hospitals. “They were really good. They did everything for her, and they had the knowledge. Back then, when the dollar was at 50 pesos, they earned 2,000 pesos a day. I don’t want to think about how much that business costs now, with the dollar at 355 pesos.”
TaTamanía, a small business founded in 2023 and dedicated to care work, gives an idea of how the business has changed—in terms of prices and organization. Elderly, sick, disabled. There’s no case that isn’t addressed by the “first private agency in Cuba dedicated to care.” The cost of these services, however, is what truly scares families.
Regardless of the plan chosen, the only payment method is to deposit dollars or euros into a foreign account. For people with mobility problems, the rate is $1.10 per hour; for people with reduced mobility, $1.35; and hospital care is charged at $1.50. The minimum required to request this service is 40 hours per week for one month. Calculating this, the cheapest plan comes to $176, about 62,480 pesos at the informal exchange rate, 14 times the average Cuban salary (4,468 pesos) and more than 30 times the average pension of a retiree (1,900 pesos).
The cheapest plan comes to $176, 14 times the average Cuban salary and more than 30 times the average pension of a retiree.
At these prices, it’s clear that TaTamanía’s services aren’t benefiting elderly people like those at the 13 de Marzo old age home, but rather people with relatives abroad who can afford their “highly qualified” caregivers.
The private service offers five places for families who cannot afford the service, which it considers its social responsibility. However, agencies of its kind are far from capable of solving the problem of elderly care. “I have a friend who tells me he has no choice but to leave his mother alone, because in order to pay what they ask for her care, he has to go out on payday and give the entire amount to the caregiver,” Yisel says.
Guanabacoa’s parks are the place where many of the municipality’s elderly congregate at one time of he day or another. Sitting in wheelchairs, taking the last puff of a cigarette or waiting for the bread to arrive at the ration store, they are the sad image of an aging country. Even so, the park, the streets, or the old age home itself are, for many, an alternative to the empty homes from which their children and grandchildren have emigrated.
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