Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Cuba has a long history of welcoming publicity like this. In the (largely pre-www – sorry for the lack of links ) 1980s and 90s, much was made of a small number – tens, or at most, hundreds - of un- and under-insured Americans traveling - in most cases illegally – to Cuba to for HIV/AIDS care – mostly palliative care until they died.

Although these cases, and the respiratory illness sufferers featured in Moore’s upcoming films, are clearly being used by individuals and governments for propaganda purposes, which is distasteful, that doesn’t alter the objective facts they reveal, which are encouraging. Despite having far fewer resources (per capita GDP $3900 vs $43444) than the US, in many practical areas, health care in Cuba is equal to or even better than in the US. For example, the HIV infection rate is about .1% in Cuba, vs. about .6% in the US. From my optimistic perspective, this suggest that other poor countries, such as Uganda (HIV rate 4.1%, pcGPD $1,700), can improve their health care to levels comparable to Cuba and the US without necessarily increasing their GPD by factors of 10+. (source: HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, HIV and AIDS in America, List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

If Moore’s new film can promote this optimistic message, I believe it will have performed a valuable public service. IMHO, debates about which countries are better than one another are less important than ones about promoting health care world wide.