At 10:14 29-01-01 +1300, Bob wrote:
>Ronn said:
> > At 13:04 28-01-01 +1300, Bob wrote:
> > >If the other examples are incorrect, please direct me to some proof. I
> > >should have mentioned that Cuba provides free health care for all its
> > >people. How is it that a socialist dictatorship in the third world can
> > >achieve that when the richest country in the world can not?
>
> > That does not tell the whole story, though. Canadians also have
> > government-guaranteed health care, and many of them, when faced with a
> > six-month or greater wait for open-heart or other life-saving surgery,
>come
> > across the border to be treated in the U.S. That can't be compared
> > directly to Cuba, since Cubans don't have the same freedom to come to the
> > U.S. and return at will. Assuming, however, that travel was unrestricted
> > and you needed something like a brain tumor removed or a liver transplant,
> > do you think you would choose to go to Cuba or the U.S.?
>
>I understand what you are saying and agree because you are asking *me* what
>*I* would do and I am not poor and am just as greedy or self concerned as
>most. The poor homeless or unemployed in Canada do not cross the border to
>the US and be given open heart surgery.
>But the original point was that whilst the US is first world and Cuba third
>in terms of wealth, there are some aspects that make Cuba first world and US
>third in terms of social factors such as execution of juveniles and
>availability of health care. If a nation is regarded as a large family, then
>Cuba provides doctors for all its children.
My question, though, was whether or not the person needing state-of-the-art
advanced health care can get it at all in Cuba, or will the Cuban die
because the particular care he needs is not available there? I.e., does
their claim of universal health care include _everything_ available in the
U.S., or not?
(Of course, a Cuban or anyone else with enough money and power can probably
find a way around the restrictions and go wherever he wants for the care he
needs.)
-- Ronn! :)
