I don’t know about Mr. Boffey, but I have visited Cuba, in 2003, where Mr. Castro still presided over a subsistence level economy and a crumbling infrastructure. I am no fan of his anachronistic “socialismo o muerte,” socialism or death, but he did promise and deliver 2 basic programs…health care and an education for everyone. Neither reach the level of adequacy we might expect, but I saw the clinics and I saw the hospitals, and no one is denied, not even a communist-hating American. Do they meet US standards? Of course not. But then I can also show you public schools in Mississippi that would rival anything in Cuba in terms of teaching tool privation.
Mr. Boffey points out that “Sicko” made no mention of the fact that the US is 2 notches above Cuba in the World Health Organization rankings. Does this imply that we should be proud of a health care system a mere 2 places above a 3rd world country, and one above another, Slovenia? Mr. Boffey himself neglects to mention that more importantly, the US health care system ranks dead last of all industrialized nations.
Cuba ranks so low because of poor health care quality, largely due to the US-enforced embargo that hurts the Cuban people, as all international embargos tend to do. The US ranks so low because our health care differentiates. Yes, we do have the best health care providers and medical technology in the world, but for millions, it’s not worth a damn. Our premium health care is known only to those who can afford it. For those with some sort of health insurance coverage, it is available on a downward sliding scale of quality and availability. It is completely denied millions of others who flood overwhelmed emergency rooms as a last resort, including an estimated 12-million children, according to the Pew Charitable Trust.
In contrast, members of the US Senate, most of them millionaires, and who have the power to do something about our health care crisis but don't, are fully covered by government health insurance, paid for in part by the millions of taxpayers who have none. Incidentally, the number of Americans with no health insurance coverage is roughly 4 times the entire population of Cuba.
One of the bromides most often offered to argue against universal health care, or "socialized medicine" as it is pejoritively referred to by those who tenaciously defend a busted system, references the long waits for specialized care in universal health care countries like Canada or Britain. We have that too. Wounded vets return from Iraq and Afghanistan to spend many months waiting for prostheses or treatment for PTSD. Is it even necessary to mention the scandal at Walter Reed? How we’ve treated our wounded is a national disgrace.
We’ve gone down the road of mostly privatized managed health care and reached a dead end. It‘s as broken down as half the cars in Cuba. We can no longer deny the cold hard facts. We have to ignore the cliché and worn-out self-serving platitudes and PR “spin” from the health care industry and begin the huge task of converting to a single-payer system. If we do nothing, then when Mr. Castro is gone and his country begins to repair its economy, we will find ourselves in the ignominious position of being below Cuba in the WHO rankings…far below.
John Wydra
A post script: The 9/11 volunteers in Moore’s film reminded my of another experience in Cuba. I attended a performance of the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra one afternoon. Among the featured works was a new composition, a program piece dedicated to the victims and survivors of the attacks on America on September 11th, 2001. The paradox? It was written by an American composer, and I was listening to a sensitive and emotional performance by an institution of Cuban culture, which itself dedicated their playing that day to the victims and survivors of that terrible event in the United States. There was no propaganda purpose involved. Most of the people in the audience were Cuban. There was no pre-concert fanfare, no public relations campaign, no ulterior motive. It was simply a moment in time to reflect on the suffering of human beings. I was very moved by it.