Not Feeling So Well in the USA

Dave (Buddhagem) had a post back a ways called Thank You Cuba, linking to a BBC report about the 8 American students who just graduated from medical school in Havana. Here is another link to that story, from the British paper The Guardian (interesting, hmmm? both sources are British...have we seen anything about this in the American media?) Reminds me of when Michael Moore had the World Health Care Olympics on his show TV Nation, comparing the same health care event in three places: Ft. Lauderdale, Toronto and Havana...and Havana won. As Moore says: "They had the fastest care, the best care, and it cost nothing." But when they turned the show in to NBC the "Standards and Practices" people (whom Moore calls "the censors,") would not let them say that Cuba won, and changed it to Canada being the winner. (They actually came in second, except that they charged the guy $15 for a pair of crutches on the way out.)

In fact, when the World Health Organization did a study in summer 2000 that ranked the health care systems in 190 countries we came in on a par with Cuba at number 37. They looked at efficiency, overall health, and the way health resources are distributed to the populations of the various nations. France, by the way, won that long jump.

So, kids, as the richest, most powerful nation in the world looks like we've got a ways to go when it comes to health care for our citizens. All eight of the American grads in Cuba's graduating class are American ethnic minorities, and the fact in The Guardian article that really grabbed me by the throat was this one:

If they make it (passing the exams, getting a residency in the USA) the graduates will be part of just 6% of practising doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the US Association of American Medical Colleges.

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American medical students, Cuba, health care, Michael Moore, TV Nation

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