How Cubans Live as Long as Americans at a Tenth of the Cost

The Atlantic ^ | 11/30/2016 | James Hamblin

[SeekAndFind]

On public-access TV in 1985, Bernie Sanders defended an element of Fidel Castro’s regime: It was rarely mentioned that Castro provided health care to his country. Sanders grumbled that the same could not be said of then-President Reagan.

The comment came back to haunt Sanders in the wake of Castro’s death. On Sunday on ABC’s This Week, host Martha Raddatz played the old clip and then asked Sanders if he was aware that “this was a brutal dictatorship despite the romanticized version that some Americans have of Cuba.” She reminded Sanders that Castro rationed food and punished dissidents, then hit him with the big question: “So have you changed your view of Castro since 1985?”

Sanders said he didn’t exactly remember the context for his comment (being 31 years ago) but that Cubans “do have a decent health-care system.”

Many consider it more than decent. After a visit to Havana in 2014, the director-general of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan called for other countries to follow Cuba’s example in health care. Years before, the World Health Organization’s ranking of countries with “the fairest mechanism for health-system finance” put Cuba first among Latin American and Caribbean countries (and far ahead of the United States).

Cuba has long had a nearly identical life expectancy to the United States, despite widespread poverty. The humanitarian-physician Paul Farmer notes in his book Pathologies of Power that there’s a saying in Cuba: “We live like poor people, but we die like rich people.” Farmer also notes that the rate of infant mortality in Cuba has been lower than in the Boston neighborhood of his own prestigious hospital, Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s.

All of this despite Cuba spending just $813 per person annually on health care compared with America’s $9,403.

[Just mythoughts]

I heard a first hand story about a couple of liberal doctors without borders... They both ‘love’ Castro's health care system. Course one of them described how a piece of their furniture cost more than an average Cuban made in a whole year. It might surprise some just how mentally unstable a large number of advanced degree Americans literally are.

[Sontagged]

Ballerinas make more money than Cuban doctors.

Cuban health care = bring your own aspirin

[Secret Agent Man]

I forgot. Lies, damn lies, and statistics. I have been thinking that all the way through this recount travesty.

[dangerdoc]

Too poor for rich food, tobacco and alcohol, they may not live forever but it feels like it.

[Lizavetta]

Reminds me of a similar sentiment pertaining to Russia ... it’s free but there isn’t any of it.

[hanamizu]

Farmer also notes that the rate of infant mortality in Cuba has been lower than in the Boston neighborhood of his own prestigious hospital, Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s.

---

I have read that when it comes to infant mortality rates, the devil is in the details. Here in the U.S., if a child takes a single breath and then dies, it is recorded as an infant death. In some places (like Cuba) a child who dies after a week or two is not even counted as being born. I very seriously doubt that obstetric care in Cuba is superior to that provided Brigham and Women’s.

[reasonisfaith]

How can we know anything about Cuba’s health care?

Or anything about Cuba period?

All we know is it’s a closed system, we can’t see inside, and that the primary function of the Cuban government is to lie about their reality?

[reasonisfaith]

It’s like asking Hillary how much she’s given to charities, or asking her anything whatsoever.

Or for that matter, asking any socialist any question at all. Lying is their primary tool, going back to Marx.

And loss of credibility is the price they pay.

[DannyTN]

But I can get toilet paper.

That's it!!! The lack of TP leads to a long life. Or at least it seems long.

[dfwgator]

Surely Commies would never fudge their statistics, would they?

[4Liberty]

Cuba cheats the life span numbers -- they require women with high risk pregnancies to get abortions since the State's centrally planned budget is poor and small (shortages of health care sevices) -- and high risk births are costly for "the government" to treat, even though the parents worked for the money, and WANT to pay for services to save their child. In the U.S., we don't require abortions for high risk births -- we try and save the child's life. Since this is not always successful, there are kids who don't make it, and only live 4 days (for example). This drags down the "average" life expectancy for the U.S. -- we are averaging in a "5 day old" person with those living into their 90s, so the Average drops. If we "mandated" abortions for all families with high risk births, like Cuba conveniently does, then -- our life expectancy would be higher than Cuba's. So Cuba (& Michael Moore) are messing with the data - to win the argument about superior Cuban health care & longevity. Google "Cuba abortion rate," to read articles on the topic...

https://www.pop.org/content/abortion-and-infanticide-cuba

[achilles2000]

I’m surprised you’re the first on the thread to hit on this. Poverty eliminates many of the bad lifestyle choices people in rich societies make - eating like pigs, taking drugs, excessive drinking, smoking like chimneys, and leading the lives of couch-potatoes - that lead to higher mortality. In addition, there are issues with the integrity of the data and, perhaps, differences in how mortality is measured.

[WMarshal]

Maybe Cubans are living as long us Americans but who knows because communists lie as easily as they breath be just as iften. We do know for a fact that Cubans wish they were dead most of their lives.

[The Antiyuppie]

it is a fact that mammals who are slightly underfed live considerably longer. So, this is not surprising.

[bigbob]

Step #1 is “Never criticize Fidel or the government”

[ScottfromNJ]

Cuba has great healthcare for the ruling elite. Old, horrible run down community clinics for everyone else.

[The Antiyuppie]

“That’s it!!! The lack of TP leads to a long life. Or at least it seems long.”

Perhaps - there is a theory that exposure to bacteria keeps the immune system “fit” because it is always working.

[stormhill]

All of this despite Cuba spending just $813 per person annually on health care compared with America’s $9,403.

The obvious implication is to link life expectancy to healthcare which is in itself an absurd fallacy. That aside, this says absolutely nothing about quality of life in general.

Cubans may live as long as Americans but on the other hand, it feels like it's ten times as long. Hmm. Maybe there really is something about socialism after all...

[Bob434]

[[Leftist romanticize about brutal dictators as long as they’re leftist dictators. Mental disorder.]]

I said the other day- perhaps donald should act like castro- or noriega, or an ayatolla or soemone so the left will love him-

[MtnClimber]

When the people who control the healthcare also control the statistics they control the outcome. Never mind that the leftists never think it is really total BS. They prefer to believe lies.