It's terrible for Cubans. It's great for foreigners who go there and pay under the table.
I hear that Cuban's health system is among the world's most developed. The average life expectancy is 75 for males and 80 for females. Those figures are higher than the US. But I find that hard to believe. Based on my trip down to Havana a few months ago, the country is basically third world.
All those wondeful figures you see posted in the UN reports come from the cuban government itself, its a sick joke.
Mark Twain said:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
And he could not be more correct when referring to any govenrment and especially Communist-Police State Governments like Cuba.
Do we have any statistics on the life expectancy of Cubans that are likely to be more reliable?
nothing of much value to add - except that living outside of Miami where it is impossible not to know a lot of cubans.. I will say that from all the stories I have heard it is a nightmarish hell hole. My friends get so mad when they see the positive reports from UN, hollywood types and Cuban government. They know first hand they are lies
Be responsible, ease suffering; spay or neuter your pets.
We must get them to understand that government solutions are the problem!
I read that newborn babies are not registered until 7 months. Thus the bizarre mortality rate and LE statistics.
This is what a Cuban hospital looks like. Not quite what you would find in a Michael Moore movie I imagine. Cuban ambulance: wheelbarrow.
You got to remember also, apparently American pay $7,290 a year for healthcare. Even though my parents in their 50s both smokers, my fathers father died of lung cancer and they pay about $4000 a year for the both of them. I cannot even wrap my head around how anyone pays $7,290 a year for healthcare.
Its quite easy to say there is some sort of conspiracy against free market healthcare, which even the US doesn't have, we need the insurance companies not to have subsidies for each state and just combine to make one big more powerful company that can keep costs down, but due to the problem with the idiotic interpretation of the commerce clause, that won't happen.
You got to remember also, apparently American pay $7,290 a year for healthcare.
Including state spending?
Caley, thanks for that link. Those scenes look about right. Not that I've been inside a Cuban hopital, but judging from the living condition. Working toilets, paper napkins, and fans are all a luxury.
A local church just went on a missions trip to Cuba and donated over $1 million dollars of equipment to Cuban hospitals. When was the last time a missions trip was needed to privde that kind of equipment to a developed healthcare system?
1. As people said, every statistic is from the government that wants their healthcare system to look great.
2. Living until you're 75-80 in Cuba sounds like hell considering how terrible the country's conditions are.
Listen to Caley McCibbin because this is true and it adds an extra half year to the life expectancy. However that isn't the whole explanation. They also abort fetuses if there is a chance of any sort of problem, so if any deficiency that would cause the baby to live only a short amount of time is detected they can "get rid of the problem" (and the future health expenses) before the baby is even born.
There's also not as many options on what to eat in Cuba and not as much money to make that decision. Hell, the poor are often some of the most obese in America.
When I looked it up I found even more out from a guy who lived in Cuba who said a.) the numbers are probably made up to make Communism look good, b.) the suicide rates there are very high (so maybe they take those out of the statistics?), c.) it's a "daily challenge" to find food in Cuba and therefore beneficial to eat healthy, d.) not as many high-cholesterol food options, and e.) they have to walk or bike everywhere and therefore they excercise more (although, he mentions, not by choice.)
This was pretty helpful to discovering why the Cuban life expectancy is so high, but CIA World Factbook has the number at 75 years and the U.S. at 78. But of course there are plenty of reasons why the U.S. has such a low number (i.e. more short-living minorities , obesity , more families who have more kids than they can take care of, and more care for fetuses to prevent premature death even if they will live shorter than average.)