Health care? Ask Cuba

[ckramer]

HERE’s a wrenching fact: if the US had an infant mortality rate as good as Cuba’s, we would save an additional 2,212 babies a year.

Yes, Cuba’s. Babies are less likely to survive in America, with a health care system that we think is the best in the world. (...) According to the latest CIA World Factbook, Cuba is one of 41 countries that have better infant mortality rates than the US.

Even more troubling, the rate in the US has worsened recently.

In every year since 1958, America’s infant mortality rate improved, or at least held steady. But in 2002, it got worse. 7 babies died for each thousand live births, while that rate was 6.8 deaths the year before.

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Shame! Shame! Shame!

[Hobarticus]

1. But, but...ours is the Culture of Life!

Bush says so!

Man, that's an ugly little nugget.

[Sympleesmshn]

2. Did you read about one the fund rasing events for health care?

it was in our paper today, the Inernation Cigar conference...

[boneygrey]

3. What's your point

If I get HIV in CUBA, I'm sent to a "seperate facility". No wonder their HIV is low.

[Erika]

4. The RW are so myopic and parochial

They believe the line the U.S. is #1 in everything. We're not and we're losing ground each year. We're especially slipping in health and education.

[vonSchloegel]

5. By nature,

I rarely trust any statistic that comes out of a totalitarian country. Infant mortality is a statistic that's very easy to fudge. A hospital in Cuba will record a premature birth as a miscarriage, while here in the US, it is considered a birth as early as 19 weeks into the pregnancy. Here in the United States, doctors will take extreme measures to save a baby whose weight is a pound or less, and when those measures fail, it is recorded as an infant death. That's why our mortality rate is so high.

[boneygrey]

6. Hmmm

Good point.

[The Magistrate]

16. You Are Stretching Matters A Little, Sir

The item you place such weight on accounts for only a tiny proportion of infant deaths. The U.S. has worse infant death rtaes than many quite democratic countries, with comparably modern and intensive health care facilities. The over-all cause is the large numbers of women who receive no pre-natal care, or poor pre-natal care, and exist in stressful poverty during pregnancy and the early months of their infant's life.

[Erika]

7. Elian's father chose to take him back to Cuba

because he said we are not really "free" here. We don't guarantee job rights, health care, or education for all. He said what good is freedom without those rights?

[boneygrey]

8. And you buy that crap?

We may not have the perfect system and it needs work, but I'll take ours over Cuba any day of the week.

[boneygrey]

10. Question?

If you need a heart bypass, would you go to Cuba? Or would you prefer its done in the US? Ask the Canadians. Please show some reason.

[dflprincess]

11. As an American without health insurance

and not enough in the 401k to cover any major medical bill, yet "too much" income to qualify for medical assistance, I'd probably have a better chance in Cuba. In the US, I'd just have to wait to die.

[boneygrey]

12. Question?

Is it worth it to you to move to a repressive dictatorial society like Cuba?

[dflprincess]

13. No it's not

Of course, as far as I know, I don't need bypass surgery. But, I agree with the poster above who said we can't pretend America is always number 1. There are serious problems with our healthcare system (to put it mildly). Current estimates are that 18,000 people die prematurely every year in the U.S. because they don't have access to healthcare. You may have to wait for some nonemergency procedures in Canada or other countries with national health care but you will get the service sooner or later (and, if the situation becomes urgent, you will get it faster). In the U.S., if you don't have the insurance or the cash, you will die.

[cire4]

15. For many people....the answer is yes

There are many people in the world who don't care who is governing them as long as they are guaranteed basic subsistence, free health care, and free education. That keeps them happy and that is why Castro has survived.

[ArkDem]

21. That and a little assistance from the Cuban State Security

Agency. They go about Cuba cheerfully helping the people.

[Erika]

14. We have to change the health care system

There are people here dying because they cannot afford health coverage. Many elderly will not go to the doctors because of the costs. Now Bush is slashing our help to the needy even more.

[Vinca]

17. Ditto, here.

Can't afford insurance anymore and don't have enough money to cover a major illness. If I got sick, Cuba would look pretty darn good. From what I've read, they have very good health care. The United States might very well have the most skilled physicians and most sophisticated care, but if everyone doesn't have access to it, what's the point? It's frightening to know you'll wind up homeless should you need a bypass operation or chemo, but that's the current state of affairs. Does Andy have insurance? I don't think so. He'll be experiencing this up close and personal and it's not right.

[Erika]

9. Cuba is now a hot spot for tourists from all over the world

They like the atmosphere and friendly people. But of course, Americans, are not allowed by our government to travel there.

I don't trust any stats released by the Bush administration.

Educational quality is done by international testing. For high-schoolers we have now dropped to #5. Our kids can't compete at the highest level any longer. Why would it be any different for health care?

Bush has said it will be guns over butter in this country and it's showing. Our taxes are going to war, not the care of our citizens.

[Padraig18]

18. That convinces me that Fidel has it all figured out.

I'll be on the first plane I can catch to that paradise on earth, Cuba.

:eyes:

[Malva Zebrina]

19. We are not allowed by our government to travel to Cuba

Where was it last that citizens did not have the freedom to travel outside of their own country?

And if caught doing so, American citizens are punished and fined ten thousand dollars or so by their government.

Repression in Cuba?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html

course I realize that Bush has thumbed his nose at the UN and if he could he would erase the name of the US from it's charter.

[Vogon_Glory]

20. Wall St Journal Versus Cuban Health Care

The Wall Street Journal's pet apologist for Latin-American kleptocrats regularly rants about Cuban healthcare professionals working not only in Cuba, but also elsewhere in the Americas and in the Caribbean. Apparently she thinks that if people are provided some measure of healthcare, they will come to expect it.