Cuba makes strides in health care
2009 2009-10Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
The words are the paper's own, from its digital file; the division into articles was made by machine, so a box or caption can end up inside the article next to it.
Scan page 3
One of the accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution has been the great strides taken in health care. The foundation of this achievement was the decision to make health care free for all and the 1961 nationalization of health services when the government became the sole provider and implemented central planning and control.
Socialized health care has led to significant improvements in Cubans’ health status, which approaches that of many fully industrialized countries and in some cases even surpasses them, as famously in the case of the U.S.
Cuban medical education has been so effective that the country now has over 50,000 physicians, a large skilled nursing work force, and substantial increases in other health professionals such as dentists. Medical schools have accommodated thousands of students from developing countries, and the country has sent thousands of its own physicians and paramedical personnel to work in teams overseas.
Despite its dependence on the Soviet Union for almost three decades, the Cubans did not copy the Soviet model—with its hyper-centralization, low-paid, largely specialist physicians, and weak primary care sector. Instead, the Cubans built up a strong decentralized system of primary care linked to hospital-based specialist care, with public health mobilizations.
The U.S. embargo, which imposes acute shortages of important medicines and equipment, has stimulated a home-grown pharmaceutical and bio-technology industry, which has registered some important innovative successes. Nor did the Cubans allow the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union to undermine their commitment to social equity in health care. In contrast, Vietnam, China, and the former “socialist” states in Eastern Europe introduced market reforms, with predictably negative consequences in the ability of all citizens to gain access to health care.
—BARRY WEISLEDER service payment; bring physicians and other health professionals into salaried service under contract to multi-disciplinary clinics and hospitals accountable to their communities; expand the role of nurse practitioners, midwives, and other health care providers. (6) Nationalize the pharmaceutical industry. (7) Empower health-care consumers and workers to eliminate wasteful practices, monitor quality of care, and determine fund allocations based on the best clinical evidence and broader social needs and priorities. (8) Increase government revenues to fund these and other reforms by eliminating tax breaks for the rich and increasing the corporate tax share.
Medicare is widely associated with Canada’s labor parties, the CCF and its successor, the New Democratic Party (NDP). Naturally, the tasks facing advocates of public health care in the U.S. are bigger, and are linked to the need to establish its own labor party.
Progress on all fronts is extremely important, not only for Americans, but for Canadians and everyone on this planet. When for-profit health care is put to rest in the U.S., it will reduce privatization pressure everywhere. It will be a blow to capitalist rule and a victory for the international working class. n Socialist Action octoBER 2009 3
Scan page 4
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images