A hospital in Varadero, Cuba. |
Apropos of the current health care debate in the United States: What happens when a government you happen not to approve of does some good things? The case in point is Cuba, where the level of health care is startling.
Medicine has long been held up as one of the success stories of Fidel Castro’s half-century tenure.
During a Worldfocus reporting trip several months ago (February 2009), I had the chance to check out the reality of the claim at various points along the health care track. At one end of the spectrum, I spoke to a retired woman who lives with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in a small apartment in downtown Havana. The family’s basic income is about $40 a month. They could use more money, but not for health care.
The woman, in her 70s, was considering the merits of having a foot operation. It was a standard problem to straighten out some toes. I did hear some complaints from people who complained about a shortage of doctors and waiting times. Not in this case, which I chose at random. The decision was based on the timing; she was confident in her doctor’s skill, was not worried about a delay in treatment and didn’t even consider the cost. It was free.
There was an 80-year-old writer who had a quadruple bypass several years ago. He was taken to the provincial hospital with the best reputation for the surgery, recovered at the hospital and at a facility where his family joined him, and now has regular checkups with a doctor who reminds him to keep exercising. No bill for him or his family. It was free.
I spoke to an African-American woman from New York who attends the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba. The students there are Cubans and foreigners from two dozen countries; the young woman told me the program was life-changing; she would never have had the means to study medicine in the United States. It’s free — but wait; there’s a catch. Americans who attend must promise the Cuban school that they will practice medicine in poor or under-served communities in the United States.
Finally, I interviewed Dr. Gerardo Guillen, the research director of the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, who described pioneering pharmaceutical research. The center is experimenting with drugs to treat and cure prostate cancer and hepatitis C. The center already produces and distributes a drug that treats and cures deep wounds characteristically suffered by diabetes patients. Guillen estimates that tens of thousands of people in the United States could be saved from amputations if they had access to this particular drug. It’s not licensed in the United States.
Cuban Americans, among others, sometimes come to Cuba for treatment or for other medical intervention they could not afford back in the United States. The cost for visitors? Not free — but a fraction of what it would cost at home.
- Peter Eisner
Photo courtesy of Flickr user scaturchio under a Creative Commons license.
10/09/2009 :: 06:49:21 PM
Ridiculous Says:
So many people are for this but few are willing to do the research. Cuba pays about 50% of their earnings as personal income tax. So for this ‘free health care system’, it’s funded from some where. I ask you where do you think it comes from? Right now the highest taxes for the lower brackets in the US are 28% for a single person and it goes down for having dependents. Can each and every one of you afford to lose 22% (or more) of your monthly income for the rest of your lives for this ‘free’ health care? What most Americans need to learn is control. Seriously. Stop leasing new cars every couple years, getting the 46 inch big screen TVs, drinking, partying and start planning on the future. Planning now will help most people in the long run. There will be select few who it won’t. And that is what our current system is designed to help. Additionally, why are Mexicans getting free healthcare in California? They don’t pay taxes here but come over and get all kinds of bennies that legal tax paying citizens can’t even partake in? Granted, California government has been completely insane for the last 10 years or so… and as such they may be the first state to file for federal bankruptcy in the near future.