Scarcities starve Cuba's model health system

[Rose Siding]

Cuba is not paradise. But Fidel Castro's health care system racks up some wins in the "Battle of Ideas," a Madison-based medical aid delegation learned this month.

The Battle of Ideas, a national solidarity and service campaign now in its fifth year, holds up Cuba's socially oriented, government-funded programs - especially health care and education - as models against President Bush's versions.

On a damp January night, the 11-member Wisconsin Medical Project group met at the office of Dr. Bernie Micke, a UW Health family practitioner, to stuff huge rolling suitcases with items like Tylenol, Immodium, ostomy supplies, sutures and stethoscopes.

A week later, packing personal luggage and the donation bags, we flew to Toronto and then to Havana. The nonprofit Wisconsin Medical Project, directed by Micke, is one of the few programs in the state still licensed by the U.S. government to travel to Cuba..........

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=29219&ntpid=0