Healthcare Shmealthcare

We're always being told by liberals and leftists how great the free Cuban healthcare is. As if that were a justification for the heinous crimes of the castro regime. Well the facts just don't support the Cuban healthcare miracle. For example in Cuba you have to bring your bed linens to the hospital. In Cuba basic medicines are scarce (even though they are exempted from the embargo). Go to any Cuban owned drugstore in Miami and you'll see that they proclaim "Envios de medicinas a Cuba" (We ship medicines to Cuba).

What's equally disgusting is when people use the Cuban healthcare system to demagogue American politics. They claim that Cuba has free universal healthcare for all, as if it is an example the U.S. should follow. But let's look at the real healthcare situation in the U.S. and see if it's as bad people claim.

• In the U.S. you get health coverage if you are old: Medicare
• You get health coverage if you are poor: Medicaid
• Many states have their own health programs for children, elederly and the poor too.
• You get health coverage from your employer if you are forunate enough to have an employer that still covers it and smart enough to accept the coverage.
• You have opportunities for health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts
• You can buy catastrophic health insurance at a reduced rate.

In the U.S. you get to pick the level of healthcare you want. Most people in the uninsured group are young healthy workers that still think they are going to live forever and choose not to opt into the available channels because it costs money and they have their priorities elsewhere. But let's say God forbid you are one of these uninsured people and you need healthcare. There are:

• Low cost clinics available in almost every city in the U.S.
• Charities and foundations that will help you with your treatments.
• And Hospitals are, by law, not allowed to deny emergency service to anyone because of inability to pay.

In the U.S. if the system fails you and let's say a doctor commits a malpractice against you, you can sue him get some sort of justice. Try doing that in Cuba.

What country invents more life-saving drugs than the U.S.?

So if healthcare is so important, and the quality of healthcare in the U.S. is so bad, then why do people continue to want to come to this country from other places where it's supposed to be so much better? Starting with Cuba but not forgetting Canada, the UK, Europe, etc.

If the U.S. system is so much worse than Cuba's how come the Cuban government makes such a big deal about their life expectancy supposedly being as good as that of the U.S.? Not that you can trust their figures but with our "crappy" system and their "great" one you'd think their's would be much better.