health care in Cuba

After a visit to Havana in 2014, the director-general of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan called for other countries to follow Cuba’s example in health care. Years before, the World Health Organization’s ranking of countries with “the fairest mechanism for health-system finance” put Cuba first among Latin American and Caribbean countries (and far ahead of the United States).

Cuba has long had a nearly identical life expectancy to the United States, despite widespread poverty. The humanitarian-physician Paul Farmer notes in his book Pathologies of Power that there’s a saying in Cuba: “We live like poor people, but we die like rich people.” Farmer also notes that the rate of infant mortality in Cuba has been lower than in the Boston neighborhood of his own prestigious hospital, Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s.

All of this despite Cuba spending just $813 per person annually on health care compared with America’s $9,403.

In Cuba, health care is protected under the constitution as a fundamental human right. As a poor country, Cuba can’t afford to equivocate and waste money upholding that. This pressure seems to have created efficiency. Instead of pouring money into advanced medical technology, the system is forced to keep people healthy.

It’s largely done, as the BBC has reported, through an innovative approach to primary care. Family doctors work in clinics and care for everyone in the surrounding neighborhood. At least once a year, the doctor knocks on your front door (or elsewhere, if you prefer) for a check-up.

New Zealand shooting

[3/15/19] The wounded tried to crawl away or lie still, while others ran or crouched behind the dead, but the gunman kept pulling the trigger.

He shot fleeing women and girls, and pumped bullet after bullet into piles of motionless men and boys in a house of worship.

The man accused of carrying out the worst mass murder in New Zealand’s modern history, one that left 49 people dead and more than 40 others wounded at two mosques in Christchurch, was identified in court documents on Saturday as Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28. The suspect, who officials said is an Australian citizen, was charged with one count of murder, and more were expected to come.

The horror was designed specifically for an era that has married social media and racism — a massacre apparently motivated by white extremist hatred, streamed live on Facebook and calculated to go viral.

The Facebook video, shot from the killer’s helmet-mounted camera, and a 74-page statement that the authorities said was written by the gunman, point to an array of possible role models, from racist mass murderers to Oswald Mosley, the 20th century British fascist.

Standard white supremacist and far-right nationalist tropes, like fears of a “white genocide,” are sprinkled throughout the statement. There are also elements of a self-flattering reach for larger meaning: references to centuries-ago battles between Christians and Muslims are scrawled on his guns, and on the video he refers to his slaughter of unarmed people as “the firefight.”

President Trump on Friday described the attack as “a horrible disgraceful thing, horrible act.” But when asked if he saw white nationalism as a rising threat around the world, he said: “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said on Saturday that a total of five firearms, including two semiautomatic weapons, were used in the attacks. New Zealand has fairly lax gun laws, but little gun violence.

“Our gun laws will change, now is the time,” Ms. Ardern said, though she did not say what that legislation would look like.

[3/18/19]  New Zealand's government has agreed to reform the country's gun laws in the wake of last Friday's massacre at two mosques, in which 50 people were killed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed.

Ardern said that the "worst act of terrorism on our shores" had exposed a range of weaknesses in New Zealand's gun laws.

Speaking after her weekly Cabinet meeting Monday evening local time, Ardern told reporters that ministers had agreed "in principle" to reform gun laws.

"Within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism we will have announced reforms which will, I believe, make our community safer," she said.

While acknowledging that "for a short period" planned reforms might create uncertainty for some gun owners, Ardern said: "I strongly believe that the vast majority of gun owners in New Zealand will agree with the sentiment that change needs to occur."

Hawaii health care

At 94 percent coverage, Hawaii is a national leader in access to quality health care. With political will, public support and a viable plan, Hawaii can become the first state to achieve 100 percent health insurance coverage and serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

How did we come so far?