Stock Market and Political Commentary

Hurricane Exposes Truth

Written on 09/11/08

As many of you know, my friend Phil in Canada believes Cubans have better health care than Americans and that Michael Moore actually produces documentary movies rather than laughable propaganda.

It sounds like they have evacuation plans and procedures for hurricanes (good idea based on their location).  But let's take a closer look at what life is like for Cubans from a recent AP story to see if it is even plausible that they in fact have a superior health care system as loud mouth fatso Michael Moore says.

"HAVANA - When Hurricane Ike struck Cuba, Ronald Matos didn't think twice about fleeing his one-room wooden house for a government shelter."

Key Fact:

"one-room wooden house"

"With an inefficient centralized economy and a U.S. embargo that has stifled trade, Cuba doesn't have resources to build new, hurricane-proof buildings. It doesn't have fleets of Humvees to charge through the floodwaters. Few of its people have cars to flee in, and fewer still can check on loved ones by cellphone."

Key Facts:

"inefficient centralized economy",

"doesn't have resources to build....",

"Few of its people have cars...",

"fewer still can check on loved ones by cellphone".

"Of course, this is easier done in Cuba than in the United States because the communist government owns and controls most of the nation's resources."

Key Facts:

"the communist government owns and controls most of the nation's resources."

"And because police keep a close eye on evacuated areas — and because most Cubans have few possessions of value anyway — looting isn't a major concern."

Key Facts:

"most Cubans have few possessions of value"

"When Ike approached, Anay Estrada was reluctant to leave the single room she shares with six others. But as she is seven months pregnant, two police officers showed up at her door."

Key Facts:

"reluctant to leave the single room she shares with six others."

Yes this sounds like Castro has created a real economic powerhouse in the last 49 years just like Michael Moore claims.  It is truly an island paradise.

They a superior political system that allows their citizens to live in comfort and even provides with a health care system superior to that of their poor neighbor to the north.... the United States of America... where, if you can believe it, some of their citizens actually have to purchase their own insurance or pay doctors out of their own pocket to take care of their medical needs.

RWG

Cuban Health Care Facts

Written on 08/14/08

To my Candian friend who thought Sicko was a reality movie....

Since you bought the lies of Michael Moore in his movie Sicko about how the health care in Cuba is better than that in the US, I thought a two minute research project would be in order to show you how utterly stupid that idea is on the face of it and how that "free" health care is always anything but free.

Here are some facts to consider from Wikipedia about Cuban health care:

Total health expenditure per capita:

$251

 

Total health expenditure as % of GDP:

7.3

A doctor’s salary in the late 1990s was equivalent to about US$15-20 per month in purchasing power. Therefore, many prefer to work in different occupations, generally in the lucrative tourist industry (e.g. taxi drivers), where earnings could be 50 to 60 times more.^"

 

"The difficulty in gaining access to certain medicines and treatments has led to healthcare playing an increasing role in Cuba's burgeoning black market economy, sometimes termed "sociolismo". According to former leading Cuban neurosurgeon and dissident Dr Hilda Molina, "The doctors in the hospitals are charging patients under the table for better or quicker service."

"Prices for out-of-surgery X-rays have been quoted at $50 to $60.^[34] Such "under-the-table payments" reportedly date back to the 1970s, when Cubans used gifts and tips in order to get health benefits. The harsh economic downturn known as the "Special Period" in the 1990s aggravated these payments. The advent of the "dollar economy", a temporary legalisation of the dollar which led some Cubans to receive dollars from their relatives outside of Cuba, meant that a class of Cubans were able to obtain medications and health services that would not be available to them otherwise.^[35]"

Wise up Phil and get rid of this idea out of your head that socialism and tyranny is superior to freedom and capitalism.  The state cannot create and manage a system that would be superior to that of one created by a free people being operated on capitalist principles, whether it be for health care or making widgets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Cuba

RWG