That Cuban health system
Statist socialists tell us its fantastic and a model of what we could do.
This conflicts with reports from actual Cuban patients who have to go through the system. Things like providing your own bedding and even drugs. Filthy wards, old equipment and worse.
I think the Cuban health system is like the Pyongyang metro (or pretty much anything else they let you see in NK). Visitors are only shown two stations which are spectacular and obviously meant to show the superiority of the North Korean political system. The other stations are thought to be just plain, small, concrete buildings with none of the splendour of the two shown for propaganda purposes.
The Cuban health system is probably like this. Outsiders are shown some carefully kept examples of the greatness of Cuban communist health care.
The difference is, many statist leftists are happy to swallow Cuban propaganda, but I doubt many would swallow North Korean propaganda.
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March 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I think that - looking at the health tourists that visit Cuba - that it does have a good health service.
That great swathes of the islanders are in poverty suggest that it isn’t a socialist paradise, however.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Life expectancy statistics and other health related statistics show that it does have a pretty good health care system, certainly superior to other countries at a similar level of economic development.
I don’t have much good to say about Cuba beyond that, but it does appear to be the case.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Well now Cuba has a new President who has made some simple but important reforms, we need to start talking to Cuba. It is in a difficult economic condition and we can make agreements with them, we can say we will open up trade if they release political prisoner. I hope we’ll do that rather than just isolating it and hurting the people further.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
The embargo has done nothing good for anyone. The same as with unplesant states such as China: trading with them helps political reform, embargoing the opposite. There are only a small range of cases where embargoes are effective in advancing democratic causes.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:23 am
You make a fair point about the statistics- although given the accounts from Cubans of the dire state of the service I wonder how accurate they are. There’s also a very very high abortion rate which could easily raise life expectancy (the US has a low expectancy largely because there are less abortions and more attempts to save ill and premature children for example).
I agree that the embargo has done nothing good, apart from for Castro and the ruling class…
It hurts the poor and the ordinary person. The elite still get things they want and need, the poor stay poor (and get poorer) and remain isolated and difficult to inform about the world.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
WHO statisitics go further than that. Number of deaths per live births below 5 for example is lower than America. Probability of dying between 15-60 is lower for men and very close for women. This is a real achivement for a third world country under embargo. WHO statistics are also unlikely to be fiddled.
We can say that the regime is unplesant and we do not support it while acknowleging its achivements in healthcare, and possibly even looking for some good practice to export- at least for other third world countries there surely must be something to learn.
Same as with say China, where we can say well done to their economic development while still opposing the regime.