A Cuban doctor on socialized medicine

A view from the inside:

It has been more than 20 years since I came from a communist country (Cuba) where I was employed as a physician for over 10 years.
During this time I observed firsthand how socialized medicine really works. The basic failure to provide minimal quality of care, compounded by the scarcity of vital medications and supplies, made every day a battlefield. The waiting list to have elective procedures and the restrictions on ordering expensive tests were a nightmare. I witnessed how medical directors, high-ranking administrators and heads of departments manipulated statistics using deceptive formulas to adjust data in order to reach goals imposed by “El Commandante” Fidel Castro.

Comments

Tom
“I witnessed how medical directors, high-ranking administrators and heads of departments manipulated statistics using deceptive formulas to adjust data in order to reach goals imposed by “El Commandante” Fidel Castro.”
Of course, private corporations would never manipulate data to mis-represent major accomplishments *cough*healthsouth*cough *2.7billiondollarfraud*cough*, because for profit corporations have absolutly no reason to do so *cough*enron*cough* worldcom*cough*. So, thank goodness the US has the only kind of healthcare that is beyond reproach, private, for-profit healthcare.
Evan
This makes me sure that I will NOT vote for any Marxist-Leninist candidates for president.
Thanks Kevin!
Anonymous
Kevin, your insinuation that the health care experience in utterly destitute Cuba is at all informative for any other country–in particular, the US–is absurd. A universal health care system in the US likely would and could not bear any resemblance to the socialized systems that have heretofore been seen on the planet.
Anonymous
Anon at 1:36, you are absolutely right.
Shortages have always been a plague of all communist countries – be it Soviet Union or Cuba. The shortages in health care weren’t specifically the problem of socialized health care per se, but of the whole “planned” economy. There was a shortage of everything – food (other than bread and potatoes), equipment, nice clothing, toilet paper, etc.. There weren’t enough rooms and beds in hospitals, but there also wasn’t enough housing. And if you don’t have needles and basic drugs like antibiotics, I am not even talking about more expensive equipment, it is really difficult to provide good quality health care. So unless socialized medicine has to be accompanied by “planned” production of needles and drugs and equipment there is no real reason to expect the same shortages here.
In terms of manipulating statistics to satisfy Castro – this problem was also pervasive for the whole communist economy and not restricted to health care.
I am not necessarily for socialized health care. In fact, having a cousin in Germany and seeing both advantages and problems of their system, I am a bit suspicious of it (in fact having a nice insurance I am afraid of loosing what I have). But if you want to make a valid comparison – use Germany or Italy or Sweden, not the third world country like Cuba. Yes, I understand about Moore’s documentary – but just because he took a bit of Castro propaganda as an example of socialized medicine, you should too. If he used a stupid example, doesn’t mean we should.
Kevin
The comment was deleted because it is not relevant to the topic.
I refer you to the comment policy of the blog:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/07/comment-policy.html
I have also said in the past that posts are purposely presented in a polarizing manner to generate discussion:
http://scienceroll.com/2007/08/18/behind-the-scenes-of-medical-blogs-kevin-md/
Make of that what you will.
Thanks,
Kevin

A Cuban doctor on socialized medicine

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