Joat42 wrote:doug941 wrote:Actually it is nowhere near true. If your medical staff can't provide you with a pillow, do you really think your going to get antibiotics and CAT scan machines? The US system is not perfect, nowhere near, but when was the last time a US doctor had to put his/her used needles in an autoclave so they can be reused?
I base my statements on available statistics, which you haven't refuted. Care to try again without hyperbolic examples and anecdotal evidence?
The stats you mention, but also don't show, are very much an apples and oranges situation. If you use one metric for country "A" and a second, different, metric for country "B", you can disguise a lot of issues.
I will quote (in part) from two media articles, neither US publications:
El Pais from Spain https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/ ... 71276.html “Cuba’s health service is divided in two: one for Cubans and the other for foreigners, who receive better quality care, while the national population has to be satisfied with dilapidated facilities and a lack of medicines and specialists, who are sent abroad to make money for Cuba,” says Dr. Julio César Alfonzo, a Cuban exile in Miami and director of the NGO Solidaridad Sin Fronteras."
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"However, despite these impressive statistics, the quality of primary healthcare, which has been fundamental to Cuba’s success, has been declining in recent years. Between 2009 and 2014 there was a 62% fall in the number of family doctors, from 34,261 to 12,842, according to Cuba’s National Statistics Office (ONEI)."
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"For Odalys, a young patient waiting at the Hospital Salvador Allende, “the situation is becoming unsustainable in this country and it’s not because of a lack of specialists, it’s because we have to bring everything ourselves. I just bought a light bulb for the hospital room. I’ve called home so that they can bring me bedding, towels and even toilet paper. There aren’t even stretchers, I saw a family carrying their sick son into a room. Free and universal health care, yes, but it’s a bit of a mess and very informal,” she says."
National Post of Canada as quoted by the Foundation for Economic Education https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-cu ... re-system/
"…a small bottle of tetracycline costs US$5 and a tube of cortisone cream will set you back as much as US$25. But neither are available at the local pharmacy, which is neat and spotless, but stocks almost nothing. Even the most common pharmaceutical items, such as Aspirin and rubbing alcohol, are conspicuously absent. …Antibiotics, one of the most valuable commodities on the cash-strapped Communist island, are in extremely short supply and available only on the black market. Aspirin can be purchased only at government-run dollar stores, which carry common medications at a huge markup in U.S. dollars. This puts them out of reach of most Cubans, who are paid little and in pesos. Their average wage is 300 pesos per month, about $12. …tourist hospitals in Cuba are well-stocked with the latest equipment and imported medicines, said a Cuban pediatrician, who did not want to be identified. … "Tourists have everything they need… But for Cubans, it’s different. Unless you work with tourists or have a relative in Miami sending you money, you will not be able to get what you need if you are sick in Cuba. As a doctor, I find it disgusting.""
The following IS from a US publication, the Washington Examiner https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/thin ... even-close "...Some say the model for ordinary Cubans is efficient. Cuba spends only 11 percent of its GDP on healthcare, while the United States spends 17 percent. Perhaps the Cuban system saves money by requiring patients to bring their own bed sheets and light bulbs. Turns out it's also a budget saver if you don't update your facilities or practice basic hygiene. Sometimes you get what you pay for."
But there is one Cuban strategy that DOES help, mandatory vaccination. Worried about the myth of Thiomersal? Too damned bad, roll up your sleeve.
