More disappointing news for those who justify their support of Communist oppression because of its excellent health-care system. But then who really knows what Cuba’s health-care system is like? But never mind! The vigilant citizenry that studiously believe that Bush lied, Troops died, swallow whoppers like these like force-fed ducks for pate! Say it isn’t so!
[quote]“Paradise Island”
The myth of Cuban health care.
By Fred Thompson
You might have read the stories about filmmaker Michael Moore taking ailing workers from Ground Zero in Manhattan to Cuba for free medical treatments. According to reports, he filmed the trip for a new movie that bashes America for not having government-provided health care. Now, I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care. I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore’s talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented. Simply calling his movies documentaries rather than works of fiction, I think, may be the biggest fiction of all. While this p.r. stunt has obviously been successful — here I am talking about it — Moore’s a piker compared to Fidel Castro and his regime. Moore just parrots the story they created — one of the most successful public-relations coups in history. This is the story of free, high quality Cuban health care.
The truth is that Cuban medical care has never recovered from Castro’s takeover — when the country’s health care ranked among the world’s best. He won the support of the Cuban people by promising to replace Batista’s dictatorship with free elections, and to end corruption. Once in power, though, he made himself dictator and instituted Soviet-style Communism. Cubans not only failed to regain their democratic rights, their economy plunged into centrally planned poverty.
As many as half of Cuba’s doctors fled almost immediately — and defections continue to this day. Castro won’t allow observers in to monitor his nation’s true state, but defectors tell us that many Cubans live with permanent malnutrition and long waits for even basic medical services. Many treatments we take for granted aren’t available at all — except to the Communist elite or foreigners with dollars.
For them, Castro keeps “show” clinics equipped with the best medicines and technologies available. It was almost certainly one of these that Moore went to, if the stories in the NY Post and the Daily News are true. [/quote]
article.nationalreview.com/?q=OW … djN2Q4ZmE=
I think the fact that Fidel went to France for his operation said it all…
Sorry but my understanding is that he never left the island. A Spanish surgeon was flown in, but I have not verified this.
Oh, sorry, I’m thinking of Arafat hahahaha.
Here’s the part where u tell me I’m a bumbling fool, and to get an education. 
Another classic example of Fred posting a rant by a right-wing attack dog…
His source is the National Review, not exactly a bastion of objectivity.
If you did your homework, you’d see that the Cuban medical establishment is doing good stuff. It has some issues it needs to iron out, but it’s promising.
The Latin American School of Medicine in Havana has 10,000 students, easily the largest medical school in the America’s. Most of it’s students are foreigners including many Americans. Tuition and board are free. The schools efforts have helped immensely in the region. According to the International American Dialogue, a think-think in D.C., 1 in 3 of Cuban doctors is working abroad. This is a diplomatic masterstroke.
*Check out The Economist article from a few months back. It included some interesting facts about the impact of the Cuban medical system. I am a bit more likely to believe a reputable news source than a disgruntled ex-congressman.
What they lack in modern facilities is more than made up for by the early intervention of the doctors who are deeply integrated into the local villages and communities at the first level of care, the provision of decent screening and detection facilities at a district level, and the provision of major facilities in a few larger towns. Their medical school is excellent: they produce most of South America’s doctors and a good few of the doctors in USA have trained there too. Nice selective cull there, Fred!
One main sticking point to overcome to introduce this as a potential USA health scheme is the fact that the doctorrs in Cuba are paid about on par with a carpenter or a baker. Try taking the ski holiday in Aspen and the Chesapeake Bay yacht away from the DC surgeon and see what kind of reaction you get!
Yeah…its a real paradise…therealcuba.com/
Cuban Healthcare…look for the story about Combiomed…
therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
These conservatives can just never do enough jawing about Cuba. It really works them into a lather. Castro’s been giving the USA the finger for 50 years. :bravo: Funny thing is, none of these experts like Fred or TC has ever been there, but that’s ok, they just love to read their conservative rags over and over again and regurgitate them for us, it really floats their boat. Get a life. Or here, let me throw you some more bait… Chomsky… I said CHOMSKY. Better add another disk drive to forumosa…
Health care has to be excellent in Cuba … Castro is still alive, isn’t he … 
Maybe if an embargo or two were lifted, we might have some quantifiable results. Why chase after lost funds nationalized years ago? Take the loss, and move on.
I have never understood why much of anything with regards to Cuba is of such a RED FLAG motif for the idealogues, on both sides of the polemics.
Of course, health care in a communist 3rd world country is not all it’s cracked up to be. Damn, healthcare in the Scandinavia is not all it’s cracked up to be. Same with Canada. Those Socialist Mirages…
Wait a few generations, things will turn around.
Not everything has to be done this instant.
Or even the next, for that matter.
Must ask my expat medical insurer what happens if I get sick in Cuba. It’s not valid for the US or Canada so I wonder where they fly you to… Or do they reckon Cuban health care is OK? I know that in most parts of Asia at the first sign of green gills they medivac you to Bangkok or Singapore, but they have never felt it necessary to evacuate someone from Taiwan. Interesting.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”] Damn, healthcare in the Scandinavia is not all it’s cracked up to be. Same with Canada. Those Socialist Mirages…
[/quote]
Really? Anything to back that up with?
Anyone supporting Cuba’s health care system have any independent verification for the information/sources? Seems that these glorious figures are submitted by the Cuban government no? at least on the UN Human Development Report. I would be happy to look at anything including the economist report that anyone here has. So get busy and get those reports out!
[quote=“Toe Tag”]These conservatives can just never do enough jawing about Cuba. It really works them into a lather. Castro’s been giving the USA the finger for 50 years. :bravo: Funny thing is, none of these experts like Fred or TC has ever been there, [/quote]Toe Tag -
Speaking from that dark place at the end of your alimentary canal again?
Surprising comments from such a self-proclaimed advocate of freedom and human rights. Being a toady for a known terrorist, murderer, torturer and suppressor of human and individual rights as Commandante Fidel seems to not cause any ripples in the thin veneer of your moral coating.
[quote=“Muzha Man”][quote=“TheGingerMan”] Damn, healthcare in the Scandinavia is not all it’s cracked up to be. Same with Canada. Those Socialist Mirages…
[/quote]
Really? Anything to back that up with?[/quote]
Personal Experience? 
Can you explain why Castro gets those labels and Bush doesn’t, again?
So, Stray Dog, do you seriously think Bush is worse than Castro?
Reminds me of a recent BBC interview with Harry “Day-O” Bellefonte who said the same thing. What a FUCKING NUTJOB! Despite being so into “human rights” and so forth, he was falling over himself to make excuses for Castro’s cruel dictatorship.
What is this crowing cock, Fred Smith up to now? And what is it about him and near dead dicktators?
The Cuban medical “miracle” was all about how a piss poor country could maximise it’s health care efficiency by restructuring the way health care is delivered. The Cubans aimed for prevention rather than expensive cure, which was in any case completely out of their means. It was this that got the medical world excited. Now why was that? Because they thought these findings could be applied to other third world environements and thereby ease suffering in the absence of any other option.
And guess what? They acheived a functional medical system that did offer health advisors that worked with communities and attempted to head off potential health disaters like mass epidemics and so on, and fuck me, they did it. Did they attain the level of neurosurgical sophistication of the US? No, they didn’t and simply could not and did not aim for that.
So what again is the fucking point of braying over the economic corps of Cuba like a daft fucking ponce? Can’t your piss weak pumped up bag of shit of a country go and slay yourselves some real dragons? Try Vietnam - failed. Iraq - failed. You really, really want to try on Iran? Ha ha ha ha!
You carry on like the most obnoxious fucking school bully on the planet and then wonder why the rest of the sane world think youre a bunch of pox ridden cunts. Now that there is fucking amazing!
HG
For a ‘piss poor country’ Cuba seemed to handle cyclone Katrina a little better than the US too.
