> Is this not true, or no longer true? Have I been under a false impression for all this time?

Annecdotal evidence, but an acquintance of mine (who is an MD) encountered Cuban "doctors" in South America and wasn't impressed at all.

> I even remember seeing this mentioned in the newspaper at the beginning of the pandemic.

The thing is that Cuba made a lot of claims about their handling of the pandemic, but as with every communist country out there it's hard to really know what's really going on.