Keeping Cuba healthy

[Briar]

(This article is based on the first part of BBC Newnight's survey of the world's best public services, to be broadcast tonight.)

Keeping Cuba healthy
By John Harris

...

The underlying logic of the Cuban system is amazingly simple. Thanks chiefly
to the American economic blockade, but partly also to the web of strange
rules and regulations that constrict Cuban life, the economy is in a
terrible mess: national income per head is miniscule, and resources are
amazingly tight.

Healthcare, however, is a top national priority, for reasons that draw on
the romantic (Che Guevara, the Communist Party's icon, was a doctor), but
have much more to do with pragmatism: the population's admirable health is
surely one of the key reasons why Castro is still in power.

The challenge, then, is to not so much treat illness as to stop people
getting sick in the first place.

...

If you want quick proof of how well all this works, consider Cuba's health
indicators. Its life expectancy and infant mortality rates are pretty much the same as the USA's. Its doctor-to-patient ratios stand comparison to any country in Western Europe. Its annual total health spend per head, however, comes in at $251; just over a tenth of the UK's...

...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5232628.stm