Poverty Doesn’t Stop Cuba From Keeping Its Black Citizens Healthy. So What’s America’s Excuse? [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Poverty Doesn’t Stop Cuba From Keeping Its Black Citizens Healthy. So What’s America’s Excuse?

Cuba is poorer and, due to the embargo, has had less access to drugs and medical equipment, yet its citizens live just as long, if not longer than people in the U.S.

By: Tonyaa J. Weathersbee
Posted: June 27, 2016

Whenever I hear Cubans talk about their nation’s advancements in health care, and when I think about where the U.S. is on all this, what I hear is a tale of two scarcities. The tales, however, end differently for the people of color who are the main characters.

Because Cuba has, for the past five decades, struggled to bring health care to all its citizens in spite of a U.S. embargo that cripples its ability to purchase drugs and medical equipment, it has kept most of its people well because it cannot afford for them to get sick.

“If you don’t see the doctor, the doctor will come to see you,” Juan Jacomino, a Radio Havana journalist who acted as our guide during a recent trip to one of the island’s many polyclinics, told me.

So Cuba has taken great steps to build health care around family and community. Physicians and nurses share the same neighborhoods with their patients. If someone isn’t going for their checkups, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

More:
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/06/poverty-doesnt-stop-cuba-from-keeping-its-black-citizens-healthy-so-whats-americas-excuse/