2007-07-21.
ICCAS
Press Release
July 19, 2007
"Re-examining the Cuban Health Care System"
Article in UM's Cuban Affairs Journal Reveals Details
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/media/pdf/Article-Hirschfeld-Press.pdf
Coral Gables, Fl.-Contrary to what Michael Moore's documentary, "Sicko,"
would lead you to believe, Cuba's health care system is far from perfect.
Although it has long been praised as one of the revolution successes,
Cuba's health care system works for foreigners but often fails its own
citizens. That is the conclusion of an article titled "Re-examining the
Cuban Health Care System" included in the latest edition of the online
journal, "Cuban Affairs," published by the University of Miami's
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
The author, University of Oklahoma Professor Katherine Hirschfeld, spent
nine months in the island living with a Cuban family and interviewing
family doctors, medical specialists, social workers, nurses and patients
as part of her research.
The article details the realities of the health system "where the best
clinics and hospitals only serve the political elites and foreigners and
scarce medical supplies are often stolen from hospitals and sold on the
black market."
Through personal observations and interviews, Hirschfeld details the
three levels of healthcare in Cuba. One for foreigners paying in hard
currency; an excellent system with great equipment and medication. A
second one for the military and high government and party officials.
Again, this system is excellent. On the contrary, the one most Cubans
deal with is poor; there is a shortage of equipment and medication; and
now many of the physicians serving them are sent abroad for humanitarian
purposes.
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=10898
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