Sicko question. How come cuban-Americans in florida aren't swimming back to Cuba to get that free health care

Answer 1

I know this will sound very, very strange to people who were born and raised in the United States. I know that most of you will not believe me and thumb me down with contempt, because something like this would be unimaginable in this country. But, for what it's worth: here it goes.

I grew up in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had special hospitals which it showed to Westerners for propaganda purposes. They in no way compared to REAL hospitals where the overwhelming majority of Soviet citizens went to be butchered. Whenever Westerners (whether tourists or journalists) came to the USSR, they had to go everywhere with a local guide (who was, naturally, an employee of the State and usually a KGB cadre, as well). This guide would make sure that these foreigners would not get a picture of real Soviet life. In addition to propaganda hospitals, the Soviet Union also had propaganda schools, propaganda apartment buildings, propaganda stores (the most famous one being Berezka), propaganda cafes and restaurants. Hell, there were even two parallel systems of currency. There were special rubles (called "valyutnyj ruble") for tourists, which were redeemable only in this special "show" stores and restaurants. Possession of these special rubles was illegal for ordinary Soviet citizens. In my 12 years in the USSR, I had never seen one.

Another way that the USSR projected an image of an extremely healthy population was by keeping sick and disabled people out of sight by any means necessary short of locking them up. It was very rare in the Soviet Union to see someone in a wheelchair, for example. If a wheelchair rolled down the street, people would stare, because it was such an extraordinary sight. Basically, handicapped, chronically ill, and even slightly imperfect people were barred from going to college (even color-blindness usually disqualified high school graduates from access to higher education). Furthermore, the handicapped and chronically ill were "excused" from employment. They were given a meager pension, bumped to the front of the waiting list for housing, and then given an apartment on a high floor (and even high-rises in the Soviet Union had tiny elevators, which were not wheelchair accessable). And once a handicapped person moved into that apartment, he stayed in it until he died; the closest he ever got to being outside was sit by the window. In these various ways, people who projected less than an image of perfect health were kept off the street and out of public life. The result: Westerners saw that the streets, the schools, and the offices were filled with perfectly healthy people, and not a single "cripple" in sight. When they remarked it to their guide, the reply was essentially that there are no sick people in the Soviet Union -- Soviet medicine being so advanced, that severed spines, brain damage, and skin cancer were all cured like common cold. Sound familiar?

I am told by Cuban immigrants that the system in Cuba is substantially the same, down to the parallel currencies.

Could it be -- can you at least allow for the possibility -- that what you hear about Cuban healthcare from Cuban media (which is owned and operated by the Cuban government) is but propaganda? Is it possible that the hospitals they show to foreigners are not nearly representative of the kind of facilities and care that ordinary Cubans have access to?

I mean, it's not like totalitarian regimes have never been known to lie -- n'est-ce pas?

Answer 2

shhhh... your going to paint communism and their socialistic health care system in a bad (and entirely true) light and the far left liberals will get mad.

please do us all a favor and not mention that prisoners in Cuba are beaten raped, tortured, starved, murdered, disappear or mutilated.

Please don't mention the fact that political opposition usually meets a very violent fate.

Do not say how Cuba doctors sent to Venezuela have used opportunity to flee to neighboring countries because they are treated as slaves and property of the Cuban government.

Please do not anger the far left by pointing out their Communist paradise with its socialized medicine actually has serious problems (socially, politically and economically)that it's own people are fleeing from

I was hopping to get a seat at Starbucks this morning, but now I will have to deal with a bunch of sad whiny far left libs moaning and gripping about being told the truth filling up the place.

Thanks a lot man! what did I ever do to you?

Answer 3

First, I love the way one of your respondents quotes the glowing praise from the Russian embassy in Cuba about their health system. Oh Yeah! like the Russians never ever indulge in the most blatant examples of propaganda.
The facts speak for themselves. If Cuba was so great, why do you have so many risking their lives to get out anyway they can? If anybody out there is so thick as to believe mike Moore and his nonsense, they may as well believe in the flat earth society. (yes there really is one.)

Answer 4

People immigrate from a poor country to a rich country. That easy.
The revolution has been unimaginably successful despite the embargo. Yet Cuba is nonetheless a poor country...
If capitalism is indeed so good, why are Cubans so eager to go to the US and not a poor Capitalist country?
Your country is rich and the health care system is dominated by thieves. That's it.

BTW, why is the US so afraid communism might succeed? Why the embargo?

Answer 5

It has nothing to do with the quality of the free health care in Cuba, which is by all accounts quite good. They clearly have political and economic reasons, which would prevent them from returning to Cuba, at this time. That should be pretty obvious and therefore your question is rather silly.

Answer 6

Take a tour of our hospitals, clinics, and rehabilitation facilities—you will find the answer to your question there. Exactly half of all the currency earned in our country goes toward the health-care system, and it is our policy to spare no expense for that purpose. Maybe there is no gasoline in Cuba to fill the car up before heading off to work in the morning, and they don’t have meat for lunch everywhere, but at least the people are healthy.”
"The successes of Cuba in the area of health care are, in fact, amazing, especially if you take into account that the country was on the verge of economic collapse after the Soviet Union ended its generous financial aid program. Physicians from leading clinics in the United States come here in secret (officially it is forbidden for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba) to acquaint themselves with Cuban experience and practices," say officials at the Russian Embassy in Havana.

Answer 7

As with so many on here you are distorting the facts as to why he went to Cuba. He didn't go to Cuba, the country for their health care, he went to Gitmo where our government is affording the detainees free health care payed for by us, the taxpayers to see if he could get first responders from 9/11 with health care problems they can't afford here taken care of their. He wanted to see if our government would give them free health care at Gitmo.

Answer 8

Better question: why aren't American liberals flocking to Cuba to utilize that excellent health care?

Answer 9

There is no agreement between Cuba and America so there is a good chance that they would not be able to come back to America if they did.

Answer 10

Same reason you didn't swim over to Japan to buy your Lexus nimrod
Not practical
but of course with your party spending millions a day on a war NO ONE WANTS
what does practicality have to do with anything