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The "cost" is the loss of your freedom.

There are great doctors in Cuba, there have ALWAYS been great doctors in Cuba, this isn't something Castro invented.

They don't have proper equipment to treat the general public, the good equipment and drugs are set aside for government officials (pinchos), or foreign tourists.

The medical attention that's most available to the populace is a doctor sadly shaking his head, knowing that given the right equipment and medications, the patient may survive, but well aware that the equipment needed, and those medications are tagged for others.

It's like the whole thing about everyone in Cuba being able to read...they're just not allowed to read what they want to read.

Thanks for the reply. I just had a chance to look at your background. If you still have relatives in Cuba, and if they are knowledgeable about the medical system, here's a partial list of the questions which interest me. I'll add more as I go.

1) One of the options we're considering is having the law changed to allow greater use of "para-doctors"; nurse-practicioners, physicians aides, etc. We're doing this because small communities can neither attract nor afford doctors. I'm told that Cuba has such a system already in place. I'd like to know the details.

2) Because of increasing specialization, small communities can no longer afford to deliver basic hospital services - such as delivering a baby (because we cannot afford to hire anestheseologists). Cuba apparently has some sort of system whereby pregnant women spend their last month in a special home, complete with specialists. Supposedly, this reduces the costs to manageable while still providing a modern level of service. How does this work?

3) Tele-medicine is apparently quite common in Cuba - enabling specialists to be used in a cost-effective way. Any details? I was told that Stanford U. would know about this but I haven't had the time to contact them.

4) My doctor friends have told me the Cubans are - as a rule - very healthy (obesity is not a problem there) and that their expected lifespan equals ours. Is that true? Thanks in advance. Research on this subject is difficult for a non-specialist with limited time and resources.

"It's like the whole thing about everyone in Cuba being able to read...they're just not allowed to read what they want to read."

Oh MAN!!! If I hear this line of adoration from the folks up here in Masachusetts, I AM GOING TO GO FREAKING BERSERK!!!!!

I had some lady squawking at me that its shameful that every child is literate in Cuba while here they are not.

Yeah, they can only read government sanctioned books and they are FORCED to learn through violence. If you let me run the school systems up here like a prison I would get results too.

I have read of thier school sytem and it is HORRIBLE! I cant believe these libs HATED Apartheid but love Castro's(Not you Larry, I am speaking of my Mass bretheren.) policies, what does that tell you?

I was against Apartheid and I am against Castro. At least I stand against monsters no matter what political stripe they are. I must say that Apartheid was NOWHERE NEAR as bad as Castro's tinpot regime.

Glad I got that off my chest. :D