Cold Water on the Cuban Myth
It’s a rare month that doesn’t go by without yet another demonstration of why Michael Moore was so totally wrong on Cuba’s healthcare system. Here‘s the latest:
Twenty-six patients at Cuba’s largest hospital for the mentally ill died this week during a cold snap, the government said Friday.
Human rights leaders cited negligence and a lack of resources as factors in the deaths, and the Health Ministry launched an investigation that it said could lead to criminal proceedings.A Health Ministry communique read on state television blamed “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) in Boyeros,” the neighborhood where Havana’s Psychiatric Hospital is located.
It said most of the deaths were from natural causes such as old age, respiratory infections and complications from chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular problems.
The statement came in response to reports from the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights that at least 24 mental patients died of hypothermia this week, and that the hospital did not do enough to protect them from the cold because of problems such as faulty windows.
Commission head Elizardo Sanchez said that so many patients dying of hypothermia was “absurd in a tropical country” and claimed the deaths could have been prevented if the government had granted long-standing requests from international aid groups to tour Cuba’s medical facilities, including the capital’s 2,500-bed mental hospital.
But it’s universal healthcare! And it’s free!
When P.J. O’Rourke visited East Germany, he marveled that communism could make a poor country out of Germans. I have to stand back in awe of a system that has people freeze to death in Cuba of all places. The Cubans are, as usual, blaming the US-led embargo. But you don’t need fancy imports and trade to keep people warm at night. Is the embargo so onerous that their wonderful healthcare system can not procure a few blankets or seal a few windows? How does this happen?
Comments
Look, I’m not a moore-on or anything but lets be realistic here. 100’s of people die in the US streets every night due to everything from hunger and cold to treatable infections. So it’s hard to start bashing Cuba until we fix our own issues with preventable death.
The government is well aware of our plight in this country and they are not rushing in to help, so lets be serous. We all could help out our fellow man a little more. Instead of wasting time making pointless comments to one another, lets thing of some real life solutions and really get these chat forums interesting.
In Fact. If some of you out there want to make it interesting!!! I’ll give $40 of my hard earned cash to the best idea… Just email [email protected] by feb/1/2010 and the best idea about helping your fellow US citizen gets 40 bucks (cash, no strings attached). Some thing that is a small contribution to a small community would be preferred. And I will also give $30 to the admin. of this site for helping promote this idea. There is just one catch, I will email everyone with the winning idea and everyone has to put there actions were there mouth is, I expect everyone to actually take part and preform the winning idea.
Lets be part of the solution, not the problem.
-George S
How about this solution gsmith, how about the people be responsible for their own problems for a change and keep the government out of our personal affairs. Do I get the $40? Probably not as this is not good enough for you. There is only one person that is responsible for handling my health care and that is me, not the government, not society, not you, not the others that make suggestions for a solution.
If those that die in the streets from hunger, bad health, and/or the cold, died because they were not responsible to themselves. They did not seek out and take advantage of the programs that exist to help them currently. This sounds cruel, but doom on them. I am sorry sir, but you would be better off saving your “hard earned money” and spend it on grammar lessons.
Cold snap weather in a Tropical country? Hmmmmm.... Sounds like the product of global warming to me. Oh that’s right - conservatives don’t believe in that type of science! It must have been Socialism killing those people in the Cuban Psychiatric Hospital. Meanwhile the Capitalism that energy companies and HMO’s enjoy is destroying the lives of millions through poor health care, embargos and oh yes… POLUTION!
Sounds like the product of global warming to me.
Really? What part of global warming does it sound like to you? The part where we have just learned that the hysteria over the retreating Himalayan glaciers retreating had been faked?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6991177.ece
Or the part where NASA and NOAA manipulated the data to fit a preconceived conclusion?
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/40749822.html
Oh that’s right - conservatives don’t believe in that type of science!
You’re right. We don’t want to believe in science that is faked, manipulated, incorrect and politically motivated. The question then becomes, “why do you want to believe in ‘science’ that is not, by definition, scientific?”
It must have been Socialism killing those people in the Cuban Psychiatric Hospital.
No, it was the state of the Cuban health care system that helped kill those people. That is the very health care that Moore used as a shining example of how health care should be. In other words, that shining example let people die for a lack of blankets in weather that was not freezing.
Meanwhile the Capitalism that energy companies and HMO’s enjoy is destroying the lives of millions through poor health care, embargos and oh yes… POLUTION!
I am sure that companies do not have the power or authority to place embargoes on anything, or didn’t you realize that?
I am always curious when people make statements such as your that are clearly based on ignorance, what would be the motivation? Is it that you abhor the truth? Is is that you are such of a moral coward that you choose to ignore facts that are contradict your ideas and not just say “ooops! I made a mistake.” Is that not within you?
Your post was just another ill fated attempt at shifting the goalposts away from the topic at hand. It failed miserably, but you won’t see that as your “I hate capitalism and conservatives” syndrome seems to have taken contol of your life.
Maybe you should go to Cuba and get someone to look at that.
Be sure to take a blanket with you.
You are a fucking moron. You son of a bitch. i dont care if you block me out of this site or you do not post this comment but i just want you to know this that you are a son of a bitch. Yes you are… A SON OF A BITCH. Period.
@CaptCBleu
I can understand why you might think that “every man for himself” works in America. But there are many circumstances where this system lets deserving Americans slip through the cracks.
In 1997 while under my parents insurance I was diagnosed with brain cancer. Blue Cross covered the majority of my care, but that still left a balance of $25k. Since the cancer was removed almost 15 years ago, I have suffered from debilitating migraines. A typical migraine lasts three days and includes light sensitivity, vomiting, hallucinations and vertigo. There is no cure for these migraines. At the age of 19, I was no longer able to attend college due to my medical condition. Because of my age and college status, Blue Cross threatened to drop me as a beneficiary unless my parents payed an extra $500 per month. My parents initially took on that burden, but later that year my sister was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma and they were no longer able to pay for my health insurance.
Despite working a full-time job, the cost of insurance is too much due to my medical history.
While I am sure there are many seeking universal health care that are not hard working citizens, the fight for universal health care isn’t just abut them. Its for children, teenagers, college students, young adults, parents, grandparents and everyone in between.
Everyone for yourself isn’t working. When parents can no longer afford to pay for their daughters brain cancer, because their other child got cancer too, you know there is something wrong with the system.
I am not asking the government nor anyone else to be “responsible” for me. But it seems fair to ask that a life free of pain be a part of the American dream.
"Fair” doesn’t enter into it. If things were fair, you wouldn’t have gotten brain cancer in the first place.
Taking money from one person and then giving it to another person won’t solve any problems. Forced redistribution of wealth will only cause more problems.
If redistributing wealth actually worked, Medicare would be solvent. Social Security would be solvent. Massachusetts’ version of health care would be solvent. All of these programs are teetering on the brink of financial ruin. Adding a huge new entitlement is only going to hasten the impending financial collapse of the Federal Government.
I hate to sound callous, but no one is entitled to a life free of pain. That kind of “fairness” simply doesn’t exist in the world, regardless of what kind of medical system exists.
While I am sure there are many seeking universal health care that are not hard working citizens, the fight for universal health care isn’t just abut them. Its for children, teenagers, college students, young adults, parents, grandparents and everyone in between.
Yes it is a fight for those people. Unfortunately, you don’t see it from their point of view.
Like many people you seem to believe that the pie of available dollars is limited for yourself and your family, but unlimited for others.
[url="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/How-Obamacare-hits-industry-and-threatens-jobs-88860652.html#ixzz0j0PrM MWKL"]
The Washington Examiner[/url] has an interesting piece on how the health care bill will affect people and companies. Specifically, they delve into the case of Zoll Medical Corporation, a company that employs 1800 people (about 1200 in the US) and makes medical equipment. Last year they made 9.5 million in profit, which is not that great of an amount considering the number of people they employ. The estimate is that under the new health care bill, they will pay 5 million in new taxes and fees which is over half of their profit.
They can do one or more of several things:
1) They can cease operation, putting 1200 people out of work. That means more people requiring health care and not paying taxes for it.
2) They can lessen production, which means laying people off or sending the production overseas where labor is cheaper. That too would result in more people not paying taxes into the system.
3) They can scale back on research and development. Step back for a moment and think what that means. It means that while they might be developing a device or drug that can save multiple people’s lives or end the suffering of others, they won’t be able to pursue that because they will be paying for someone else’s pain.
This leads to the ethical dilemma of “whose pain and suffering should be reduced?”
While I am truly sorry for you condition, what do you say to the “children, teenagers, college students, young adults, parents, grandparents” who suffer because a drug or device can’t be developed? What do you say to the parent who loses a child that would have been saved if the drug or technology that had to be delayed was developed a year earlier?
Once again, I am sorry for your condition and don’t mean to trivialize it, but what happens when my child gets ill and the drug isn’t there to help him because we all have been paying to take care of others?
Your situation is important to you. You look and see how things affect you and your loved ones. That is understandable, but what is not understandable is why your pain and suffering is any different than mine or the pain and suffering of my loved ones. You demand that we all look out for each other but in fact, you aren’t looking out for the numbers of people that will lose their jobs. You aren’t looking out for the suffering of those who could be helped but won’t be because the drug or technology will be delayed. You aren’t looking at the tremendous financial burden being put on normal, hard working families that this health bill will cause. You aren’t looking at the financial burden in deficits that will be passed down for generations.
You see the health care bill as taking care of people while ignoring the multitudes of those it will damage.
Another wonderful example of “quality health care” from our friends in England:
Dying hospital patient phoned switchboard begging for a drink after nurses said No
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1261457/Dying-hospital-patient-phoned-switchboard-begging-drink-nurses-said-No.h html#ixzz0ja9jwTPP
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Cubans love to blame the embargo for everything that’s gone wrong in their country; AFAIK the embargo does not forbid them to trade with the rest of the world. And they could get rid of it in a heartbeat by compensating the American firms that were confiscated and nationalized in 1959 with real money. That’s what set off the embargo in the first place.