Healthcare in Cuba

[isqarxis]

If we were Cuban, however, the story would be entirely different. The Cuban government

operates a national healthcare system that assumes all financial and administrative responsibility

for its people. There are no private clinics, there don't need to be. The country runs close to three

hundred hospitals, thirteen medical research centres, 450 twenty four hour clinics, and has

approximately 14,000 working family doctors. The Cuban healthcare system, said to have been

founded by Che Guevara, a doctor by profession, works -- and brilliantly so -- on one founding

principle: no matter what happens in the country, no matter how sadistic the embargo, cuts from

the nation's medical budget are categorically forbidden. In 2003 a government official told the

World Press organization "You want to know where the billions of dollars we receive from

foreign tourists go? You think they go towards uniforms or weaponry? Take a look at our

hospitals, clinics and rehabilitation centres and you will find the answer there. Exactly half the

currency earned in our country goes towards the health care system and it is our policy to spare

no expense for that purpose".

 

The facts are proof of Cuba's radical healthcare provisions. According to the World Health

Organization Cuba provides a doctor for every 170 residents, the second highest doctor to patient

ratio in the world, after Italy. There are 350,000 medical personnel serving a population of

approximately 11 million. Cuba has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas and one of

the highest life expectancies in Latin America. It also has one of the lowest HIV rates in the

world, partly owing to its stellar educational system (100% literacy, beat that USA). On average,

Cubans who do pay for additional medical care -- and the need is negligible -- pay $251 per

annum. Compare that with the $5,711 spent per year on health care by the average American

whose country's healthcare system rivals Pakistan's in its utter stinginess and lack of human care.

 

It's not just at home that the Cuban healthcare system serves the people, but abroad too. Cuba has

25,000 of its doctors working outside the country, mostly with the dispossessed across the

developing world. Since the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, more than 20,000 children

from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine have been treated in Cuba free of cost. They didn't pay a

single penny. Nearly 2,000 Cuban doctors are stationed in Africa and thousands more travelled

to South East Asia after the Tsunami and to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake. The Cuban

doctors who came to care for the earthquake victims were the last of the international healthcare

workers to leave Pakistan and only after they had treated close to two million of our people. At

the embarrassing donor conference held in Islamabad one month after the earthquake where the

Presi-General and the PM held court like auctioneers demanding millions of dollars for the

President's Relief Fund, the Cuban envoy stood up and spoke with the full weight of his country

behind him. "We are not a rich country and we cannot afford to offer you millions like those of

the Western world can" he said, then held up his hands "but we have these. And we will send

you our doctors and we will treat the victims of the earthquake for as long as you need us". And

they did.

 

If you think I'm biased –some of you have hinted that I tend to rave about unpopular countries–

then have a look at what some of Cuba's usual detractors have to say. Kofi Annan, traditionally

not one to stray from the US line of thought, said in 2000 that "Cuba demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities - health,

education, and literacy". The purveyors or economic evil the world over were no less generous in

their praise. Former president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, commended Cuba in 2001

for having done a "great job" on education and health. Even the head of the US Interests Section

in Havana applauded Cubans for their "incredible dedication to healthcare".

 

The Cuban healthcare system is an example for the world. It is one country where basic human

rights are met, where healthcare and education are not for the wealthy alone but for rich and poor

alike. Further proof, in my humble opinion, that our rat race to compete with neo liberal

economies is a meaningless one. Let's not forget that for all the bridges and fountains and

restaurants and inflow of foreign capital that Karachi has seen in the last five years, this is a city

in which MidEast Hospital was demolished to make way for a shopping mall.

Fatima Bhutto

[Sensei]

Fatima Bhutto is my girl!

[ElPunto]

Good article about Cuba's excellent healthcare outcomes. Though I suspect that if you ask Cuban doctors if they're satisfied with their salary and lifestyle = most would say no.

[Abu-Salman]

The Cuban success is primarily one of a committed leadership and popular mobilisation to enforce litteracy, outreach schemes, prioritize food security and other basic needs of all (in fact, even economic equity has a powerful effect on health outcomes!).

 

The purely medical side is secondary and doctors need not start training after 3, 6 or more years (in some cases preceded by 4 years of prior and often unrelated studies!);

in fact, it is now more and more acknowledged that cramming lots of easily forgotten "hard sciences" into students is misplaced while, in fact, real medical training commence with the residency/practical years and emphasising prevention and social awareness is the most crucial component (health is not another form of business).

 

The irony is that much of the "development" prescribtions such as exports manufacturing, processed food etc engender insidious negative health outcomes in many ways;

for instance, Cubans cardiac and general health was significantly better during the economic/food crisis of the early nineties which drastically cut the available calories and led to reliance on urban gardening.

 

To sum it up, all you need for optimal health and health system after a sincere and uncorrupt leadership, is to promote a lifestyle as natural as possible with a sense of community, constant activity, unprocessed and frugal food etc;

the question of resources is largely irrelevant as it could be minimised or maximised as much as one intends to (The much richer USA is devoting 16% of its GDP to healthcare with bankrupcy approaching at a faster rate with the increasing costs...for unfavorable results!).

 

That is why you have almost no noticeable effect in places where you just import Cuban or other foreign Doctors, even when coupled to cheap generic drugs, lots of external financing etc.

In reality, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, underlying stress and various addictions, infertility etc are exploding in all countries adopting Western lifestyles and open trade; most troubling is that, as suggested by the now burgeoning field of "Epigenetics", all this is bound to have all sorts of pernicious repercussions on the next generations...

[General Duke]

A model any future Somali state should emulate.