Sadly, the headline has changed, probably because it was really, really bad
What Americans could learn from Cuba's free, universal health care system, by @NickKristof https://t.co/L4lKEKpcEs via @NYTopinion #UHC
— André Picard (@picardonhealth) January 18, 2019
You can see the original in the top of the tweet. Weird how the Times and/or Nicholas Kristoff would change it, eh?
Claudia Fernández, 29, is an accountant whose stomach bulges with her first child, a girl, who is due in April.
Fernández lives in a cramped apartment on a potholed street and can’t afford a car. She also gets by without a meaningful vote or the right to speak freely about politics. Yet the paradox of Cuba is this: Her baby appears more likely to survive than if she were born in the United States.
Cuba is poor and repressive with a dysfunctional economy, but in health care it does an impressive job that the United States could learn from. According to official statistics (about which, as we’ll see, there is some debate), the infant mortality rate in Cuba is only 4.0 deaths per 1,000 live births. In the United States, it’s 5.9.
In other words, an American infant is, by official statistics, almost 50 percent more likely to die than a Cuban infant. By my calculations, that means that 7,500 American kids die each year because we don’t have as good an infant mortality rate as Cuba reports.
How is this possible? Well, remember that it may not be. The figures should be taken with a dose of skepticism. Still, there’s no doubt that a major strength of the Cuban system is that it assures universal access. Cuba has the Medicare for All that many Americans dream about.
Right, right, all we have to do is give up our freedom to a communist dictatorship and live in squalor.
If Only We Had Communist Health Care
…
Like everyone I’d like to make sure that infants get the care they need. But if we’re looking for good examples to follow overseas, why turn to this “poor and repressive†country with a “dysfunctional economy†on the basis of its own claims about the success of its health-care system? Even the reported results are not as impressive as Kristof makes them seem, and it’s not clear we should trust any information coming out of the country to begin with.
And why would you look to a nation like Cuba to start with? Of course, Democrats have long held a fascination with Communist countries, and are happy to excuse all the bad things.
