by leavingwt 74 Replies latest social entertainment
Loving Cuban healthcare says a lot about a person.
I think the point is that if a piece of shit Communist country can provide universal healthcare, then the most powerful nation in the world ought to be able to do the same. Why is their SO much opposition to the idea? Who stands to lose if universal healthcare is enacted? Who stands to gain? Who is investing millions of dollars as we speak to fighting reform? Why?
Cuban Drs are supposed to be very good. The problem is there is not enough medicine to go around.
There isn't even enough food to go around sometimes. This is a large island with a year round growing season, excellent arable land and only 12 million inhabitants. Cuba is blessed.
There should be enough of an overage to support a large export industry. Only under socialism do people starve in the midst of abundance.
I remember the dreams of Maceo and Marti. One day Cuba will be free.
BTS
Cuba has done wonders with what they have and the USA has now looked at some of their operations in an attempt to try and move the USA style of expensive, lengthy schools geared strictly toward specialty/high profit sectors of medicine into the Cuban style of prevention and neighbourhood teams. I believe they are experimenting with the way the Cubans work through medical school and if memory serves me right, the project is based out of New Mexico. Although medicine can be scarce in the country, Doctors do have a their disposal, herbal remedies that they can prescribe - their system is not without challenges, but to try and bring down their successes despite the difficulties they have had, not only clearly shows a lack of respect but again, putting one system down to raise your own up, is self agrandizing and unnecessary. Definitely there is work to be done - I think MEDICC and the Cuban people are the first to admit it - love Cuban healthcare? Funny how words get taken out of context and tossed up and manipulated - but some of us are trying to look at the healthcare in other countries and how things are done so that maybe we could all take something from it and make it better here. sammieswife.
By the 1980s, Cuba’s health system began to merit attention from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and other international agencies anxious to identify viable models of health services in developing countries. It was also in this decade that tertiary care facilities and research received priority attention: medical specialization expanded to 55 fields, and national institutes were established to act as national reference centers (centers of excellence) for the rest of the country. This process included national programs for prenatal screening, installation of the first nuclear magnetic resonance equipment in Latin America, and an organ transplant program. By the end of the decade, Cuba had expanded medical education to 21 medical schools spread across the country.
The 80s was also the decade for two decisive developments which became hallmarks of Cuban medicine. The first was the takeoff of the biotechnology industry, which would put Cuba in the forefront of global vaccine research. The second was the introduction of the Family Doctor Program in 1986, which located doctor-and-nurse teams literally next door to their patients. By the early 90s, over 95% of Cuban families would receive primary medical attention in their own neighborhoods. (See Challenges for Cuba’s Family Doctor-and-Nurse Program, Reed, G. MEDICC Review; 2000:2(3).http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/II/primary/sloframe.html)
With the collapse of the socialist bloc, Cuba’s island economy lost 85% of its trade in two years, threatening the economy and the health system with collapse. What’s more, the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) of 1992 tightened the US embargo on Cuba at this most vulnerable moment. (See: Denial of Food and Medicine: The Impact of the U.S. Embargo on Health and Nutrition in Cuba, Reed, G. and Frank, M. American Association for World Health, 1997. www.medicc.org/embargo.php ).
The results were devastating: from 1989 to 1993, Cuba’s economy shrunk by 35%; the hard currency available for medicines, equipment and supplies by 70%; and Cubans’ daily caloric intake dropped by 33%, proteins by 39%. Fuel shortages ground transportation and water pumping facilities nearly to a halt; blackouts extended to 16 hours a day in the heat of the summer; Cuban peso salaries became nearly worthless (reaching 145 to the US dollar); food was scarce and rationed; and urban dwellers headed for city parks in search of firewood for cooking fuel.
The remarkable paradox is that - with the exception of the 1992-93 neuropathy epidemic (5) and a few “early warning signs” such as increased low birth weight - Cuban health indicators held the line. In some cases, especially as the island began to find its way out of the crisis, they actually improved.
Infant mortality was 10.7 per 1,000 live births in 1990, down to 9.4 by 1995, and to 7.2 by 2000. Under-five mortality shows the same pattern: 13.2 in 1990, 12.5 in 1995, and 11.1 by 2000. Only life expectancy dipped slightly during the worst years: 75.2 in 1989, 74.8 in 1995, and back up to 76 by 2000. (Source:Annual Statistical Yearbook, Ministry of Public Health, Havana, 2003).
Analysts have explained Cuba’s health results in the face of adversity by pointing to the following key components:
Table 1: Cuba’s Public Health Budget – 1990, 1995, 1998
| Year | Health Budget* | Per Inhabitant | % of GDP | % of Natl. Budget |
| 1990 | 1,045.1 | 98.6 | 5.3 | 7.4 |
| 1995 | 1,221.9 | 111.3 | 5.8 | 8.8 |
| 1998 | 1,473.1 | 132.4 | 6.4 | 13.1 |
*in millions of Cuban pesos
Source: Ministry of Finance, Havana.
Sorry Sammie, but I am not going to read all that.
BTS
Yea Sammie, he wouldn't want to learn anything that might make him question his hatred. Like a JW reading non JW literature.
Perhaps she could distill the essence of it? By the way, I view any officially published figures by Castro's party with a very jaundiced eye.
BTS
Perhaps she could distill the essence of it?
That would be nice...sound a lot like a Mojito. Or, maybe - a Cuba Libre?
By the way, I view any officially published figures by Castro's party with a very jaundiced eye.
Comrade, we no longer have jaundice in the President-for-nearly-life's Cuba. Stomach cancer, maybe - but not jaundice.
Go and read the MEDICC review and educate yourself. You are so obsessed with hating one country that it makes you illiterate and unable to rationally discuss even the most simple progressions. There was a great article written in there somewhere about the work done with the USA in working toward a Cuban style of healthcare (non specialists/teams etc) as a pilot project. I believe it is ongoing now.
sammieswife.
USA in working toward a Cuban style of healthcare (non specialists/teams etc) as a pilot project. I believe it is ongoing now.
Yes, I believe that it is. Ironically.
As a matter of fact, I like old cars - perhaps I could start a pilot project where everybody drives a 55 Buick or maybe a Plymouth with fins?
You are so obsessed with hating one country
Oh what bullshit, it's my family's country! How can I hate it? It's part of my identity. I hate the regime! They killed one of my wife's uncles, imprisoned her grandfather for refusing to surrender his trucks (he had a small shipping business), they tortured members of my ownfamily, and shot my uncle in the arm during the University protests! But hey! The healthcare is great right! Nothing like having an awesome doctor but less access to the latest meds than we do! It's such a great place that millions of people have left out of a population of twelve million! It's so wonderful that people throw themselves into the sea on ramshackle rafts for a chance to get here! Why don't you move there?
BTS
