Cuba Has Bypassed the US in Health Care

ELAM
OpEdNews

May 12, 2009 at 21:33:39

by John Little

In 2000, The World Health Organization (WHO) published a shocking report which ranked the nations of the world according to their ability to care for their country's overall health. As expected, the major industrialized nations all ranked high on the list, while the poorer nations struggled towards the bottom. France was rated overall to have the best health care system with Italy ranked second. In fact, Europe held seven of the top ten spots, with Singapore, Oman and Japan rounding out the top ten. But even more stunning is the fact that European nations held 17 of the top 20 spots. Clearly, Europe has taken health care seriously and their efforts shine through.

Not surprisingly, many African and South Asian countries fared among the worst and South American countries fared only slightly better. But the surprise wasn't that European nations were among the best in health care and African and Asian nations among the worst, but that the world's only superpower WASN'T at the top. Planet Earth's lone 800-pound gorilla, it's star performer among star performers, the giant that put all other giants to shame, could only muster a 37th place finish, well back of the European and other major economies around the world. In fact, the US health care system is behind some countries that one would never picture as having a better system.

For example, Colombia, a third-world nation, ranked 22nd, the tiny island of Cyprus ranked 24th, and Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Finland and Costa Rica all had better health care systems than the US. Even the island of Dominica, in the Caribbean, which has less than 100,000 people total with an annual GDP of less than one billion dollars, had a better health care system than the US.

But perhaps the greatest revelation by far was the fact that Cuba, a nation despised by generations of Americans, a nation that brought the entire globe to the brink of planetary annihilation, the country that has been under American-sanctioned and internationally illegal economic embargo for nearly 50 years, was ranked in 39th position, only two spots behind the US. This means that the country with the largest economy by far, and I mean like way far, far, far away far; the country with the largest percentage of its GDP going to pay for its "incredibly, super-technological, state-of-the-art" health care system; the country that spends more than anyone else in the entire world on managing its health care, was almost dead even with a country that it has economically blocked for 40 years (at the time of the survey) from buying almost any health care equipment. In cartoon terms, Superman had been humbled almost to the level of Scooby-doo.

The WHO study also clearly showed that the US spends more than any other country on health care. But their chart, Fairness of financial contribution to health systems in all Member States, began to identify the cracks in American health care. While Cuba was ranked 23rd in fairness, the US could only muster a tie with Fiji in 54th place. In money spent on health care as a percentage of GDP it was no surprise that the US spent far more than any other country, 13.7%. Cuba couldn't even spend half as much of their GDP that was 1/20th of the US, 6.3%. The Cuban government pays for 87.5% of health care expenses, while the US government pays for only 44.1%. This is not surprising at all, but it is interesting to note that the United Kingdom, a democratic nation, pays well over 90% of all health care expenses. The fact that the US health care expenses eat up over 18% of their budget is to be expected, but the fact that Cuba only spends 10% of their budget on health is quite a surprise. But the most startling factor from that report is the fact that Cuba, with its few monetary resources and limited vendor supply, ranked 36th overall in its health care performance, its ability to use the resources it has in an effective and efficient manner. The US lagged very far behind at 72nd. This really should come as no surprise since Americans have been complaining for a long time about their broken system. What is news to the US public is that the world is in complete agreement with them on this.