• [ network ]
  • goatmatrix.net
  • gvid.tv
  • img.gvid.tv
  • games.gvid.tv
  • apps.gvid.tv
HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Cuban Health Care Is a Disaster

Views:957
@ReasonVids

How did the Castro regime's propaganda machine manage to fool so many for so long?

Full text and credits: reason.com/video/2022-04-18/The-Myth-of-Cuban-Health-Care
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
"If there's one thing they do right in Cuba, it's health care," said Michael Moore in a 2007 interview. "Cuba has the best health care system in the entire area," according to Angela Davis, "and in many respects much better than the U.S."

"One thing that's well established in the global health community is the strength of the Cuban national health system," said Clare Wenham, a professor at the London School of Economics.

Claims like these have appeared in hundreds of documentaries, newspaper articles, and magazine features over the years celebrating the supposed marvel of Cuba's health care system. It's a testament to the effectiveness of the Castro regime's propaganda apparatus that this myth, so deeply at odds with reality, has persisted for so long.

"The Cuban health care system is destroyed," Rotceh Rios Molina, a Cuban doctor who escaped the country's medical mission while stationed in Mexico, tells Reason in Spanish. "The doctor's offices are in very bad shape."

"People are dying in the hallways," says José Angel Sánchez, another Cuban doctor who defected from the medical mission in Venezuela, tells Reason in Spanish.

According to Rios, Sánchez, and others with firsthand experience practicing medicine in Cuba, the island nation's health care system is a catastrophe. It's exactly what you'd expect in a country impoverished by communism.

In the 15 years since the release of Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' which celebrated Cuban health care, everyday citizens have been armed with smartphones and social media, empowering them to tell the truth about what it's really like in Cuban hospitals.

So how did the Castro regime's propaganda machine manage to fool so many for so long? According to Maria Werlau, executive director of the Cuba Archive, the answer lies with Cuba's foreign medical missions, which are teams of health care professionals dispatched to provide emergency and routine care to foreign countries.

Rios participated in the medical mission in Sierra Leone in 2013, where health care specialists from around the world came to help contain the Ebola epidemic. The members of the mission were told that when they returned to Cuba, they would be received as heroes. Rios says that, while he did receive a stipend that went to cover his living expenses, medical personnel from other countries were generously compensated.

In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch said the Cuban medical missions "violate doctors' fundamental rights," including "the right to privacy, freedom of expression and association, liberty, and movement, among others." It noted that "many doctors feel pressured to participate in the missions and fear retaliation if they do not..."

After the mission in Sierra Leone, Rios was redeployed to a military base in Mexico. One day, he was sent with a group of doctors to buy some phone cards so they could connect with their relatives back home. He decided to make his escape. Rios found a job at a Mexican pharmacy and started saving money to pay a coyote to bring him into the U.S. He was picked up by border officials, and taken to an immigrant detention center for 42 days. After his release, he could join his family in Miami.

The medical missions are primarily a way of selling Cuban health care services abroad. So what's health care like for those living on the island?

Julio Cesar Alfonso is the president of the Miami-based Solidarity Without Borders, which helps Cuban doctors who have escaped. He says that there are two health care systems in Cuba—one that is used by the majority of regular citizens, and another that is reserved for tourists and the Cuban elite.

Sánchez thinks that, as the Castros' health care myth crumbles, ordinary Cubans are beginning to realize that they are not threatened by foreign enemies, as the regime propaganda machine has claimed for decades.

"The only enemy of the Cuban people," he says, "is the Cuban government."

Written and hosted by Daniel Raisbeck and Jim Epstein; narrated by Daniel Raisbeck; edited by John Osterhoudt; camera by Epstein, Osterhoudt, Isaac Reese, and Meredith Bragg; graphic design by Nathalie Walker; animations by Reese and Osterhoudt; additional editing support by Regan Taylor; ; additional research by Alexandra De Caires; translation assistance by María Jose Inojosa Salina; English subtitles by Caitlin Peters.

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
    Thumbnail for Should the U.S. Military Intervene in Taiwan? A Soho Forum Debate1:16:59
    Should the U.S. Military Intervene in Taiwan? A Soho Forum Debate
    ReasonVids
    781 views
    Thumbnail for If they'll murder an innocent baby, imagine what they'll do to you.25:56
    If they'll murder an innocent baby, imagine what they'll do to you.
    AOU
    1409 views
    Thumbnail for Have you ever heard about Lifelog? That was its original name before they changed it Facebook.2:13
    Have you ever heard about Lifelog? That was its original name before they changed it Facebook.
    AOUisgay
    586 views
    Thumbnail for When you know you're going to die soon and your dementia stops you from worrying about social acceptance and you begin to start telling the stupid youth the truth0:36
    When you know you're going to die soon and your dementia stops you from worrying about social acceptance and you begin to start telling the stupid youth the truth
    bestofvoatxyz
    983 views
    Thumbnail for Obscenity vs. Freedom of Expression: The John Stagliano Trial7:42
    Obscenity vs. Freedom of Expression: The John Stagliano Trial
    ReasonVids
    1231 views
    Thumbnail for How to Save a Dying Ocean6:00
    How to Save a Dying Ocean
    ReasonVids
    1125 views
    Thumbnail for Steve Forbes: Why the Left is Wrong about the Morality of Capitalism0:38
    Steve Forbes: Why the Left is Wrong about the Morality of Capitalism
    ReasonVids
    875 views
    Thumbnail for With Ron Paul retiring, who will pick up the mantle of the libertarian movement?3:03
    With Ron Paul retiring, who will pick up the mantle of the libertarian movement?
    ReasonVids
    984 views
    Thumbnail for Ai Weiwei's Hirshhorn Show Has Everything but the Dissident Artist Himself5:48
    Ai Weiwei's Hirshhorn Show Has Everything but the Dissident Artist Himself
    ReasonVids
    961 views
    Thumbnail for Teacher quits after seeing Big data's infiltration and influence on school children.1:59
    Teacher quits after seeing Big data's infiltration and influence on school children.
    x0x7
    1650 views
    Thumbnail for What Is Hate Speech? We Asked College Students5:59
    What Is Hate Speech? We Asked College Students
    ReasonVids
    1037 views
    Thumbnail for The Impact of Vergara v. California on the Future of Education - A National School Choice Week Event56:22
    The Impact of Vergara v. California on the Future of Education - A National School Choice Week Event
    ReasonVids
    945 views
    Thumbnail for Will California Legalize Pot? Q&A With Tom Ammaniano9:44
    Will California Legalize Pot? Q&A With Tom Ammaniano
    ReasonVids
    960 views
    Thumbnail for Federal Regulations and You: Partners in Democracy!1:17
    Federal Regulations and You: Partners in Democracy!
    ReasonVids
    930 views
    Thumbnail for Errol Morris on Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, and Evidence-Based Journalism41:30
    Errol Morris on Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, and Evidence-Based Journalism
    ReasonVids
    967 views
    Thumbnail for The Coddling of the American Mind: How Overprotective Parenting Led to Fragility on Campus54:16
    The Coddling of the American Mind: How Overprotective Parenting Led to Fragility on Campus
    ReasonVids
    1003 views
    Thumbnail for A Milestone For Women In Politics: Libertarians Reflect on Hillary's Nomination1:01
    A Milestone For Women In Politics: Libertarians Reflect on Hillary's Nomination
    ReasonVids
    978 views
    Thumbnail for David Stockman on TARP, the Fed, Ron Paul and Reagan [FULL VERSION]42:06
    David Stockman on TARP, the Fed, Ron Paul and Reagan [FULL VERSION]
    ReasonVids
    1054 views
    Thumbnail for What We Saw at the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum2:23
    What We Saw at the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum
    ReasonVids
    943 views
    Thumbnail for Interview 1767 - Ringing the Alarm on The Hrvoje Morić Show31:43
    Interview 1767 - Ringing the Alarm on The Hrvoje Morić Show
    corbettreport_uo
    753 views
    Thumbnail for This perfectly describes socialists.0:15
    This perfectly describes socialists.
    bestofsaidit
    1067 views
    Thumbnail for El Rey Erizo - Parte 2 / Shere Khan (MEJORADO) | Gabo Gabito Productions5:25
    El Rey Erizo - Parte 2 / Shere Khan (MEJORADO) | Gabo Gabito Productions
    invidious
    465 views
    Thumbnail for He Would Taunt His Victims’ Parents 😔 #disturbing | IdkSterling0:58
    He Would Taunt His Victims’ Parents 😔 #disturbing | IdkSterling
    invidious
    127 views
    Thumbnail for Government Threatens Retired Engineer With a Crime for Doing Math2:56
    Government Threatens Retired Engineer With a Crime for Doing Math
    IJvids
    970 views
    Thumbnail for George Lincoln Rockwell's greatest speech2:40:57
    George Lincoln Rockwell's greatest speech
    bestofvoatxyz
    935 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle