Lowry: Michael Moore's 'Sicko' rehashes tired leftist propaganda

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | May 22, 2007 | Rich Lowry

[Baladas]

Is all that ails the U.S. health-care system that it's not run by a communist dictatorship? That has long been a premise of apologists for Fidel Castro who extol the virtues of medical care on his totalitarian island nation.

Left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is reviving this Cold War relic of an argument in his new movie on health care, ''Sicko,'' which premieres in a few weeks and favorably compares the Cuban health-care system to ours. Moore ostentatiously took a few sick 9/11 workers to Cuba for care. ''If they can do this,'' Moore told Time magazine, referring to the Cubans, ''we can do it.''

All that the Cuban government has done, however, is run a decades-long propaganda campaign to convince credulous or dishonest people that its health-care system is worth emulating. These people believe - or pretend to believe for ideological reasons - that a dictatorship can crush a country's economy and spirit, yet still deliver exemplary medical care.

Cuban health care works only for the select few: if you are a high-ranking member of the party or the military and have access to top-notch clinics; or a health-care tourist who can pay in foreign currency at a special facility catering to foreigners; or a documentarian who can be relied upon to produce a lickspittle film whitewashing the system. Even aspirin Pepto-Bismol can be rare and there's a black market for them.

According to a report in the Canadian newspaper the National Post: ''Hospitals are falling apart, surgeons lack basic supplies and must reuse latex gloves. Patients must buy their sutures on the black market and provide bed sheets and food for extended hospital stays.''

How could it be any different when Cuba embarked on a campaign of economic self-sabotage with the revolution of 1959? It went from third in per-capita food consumption in Latin America to near the bottom, according to a State Department report. Per-capita consumption of basic foodstuffs like cereals and meat actually has declined from the 1950s. There are fewer cars (true of no other country in the hemisphere), and development of electrical power has trailed every other Latin American country except Haiti.

But the routine medical care, we're supposed to believe, is superb. The statistic frequently cited for this proposition is that Cuba has the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America. Put aside that the reflexively dishonest Cuban government is the ultimate source for these figures. Cuba had the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America prior to the revolution and has lost ground to other countries around the world since. It also has an appallingly high abortion rate, meaning most problem pregnancies are pre-emptively ended.

Other countries in Latin America have made advances in health without Cuba's vicious suppression of human rights (which, no doubt, contributes to the island having the highest suicide rate in Latin America). The way public health works in Cuba was nicely illustrated by the case of Dr. Desi Mendoza Rivero, who complained of an outbreak of dengue fever that the regime preferred to ignore in the late 1990s, and was jailed for his trouble.

As is always the case with Cuba, anything that's wrong is blamed on the United States. If there is a shortage of medicine, well, that's because of the U.S. embargo. But the United States is not the only country in the world that sells drugs. Cuba could buy them from Europe or elsewhere, and the U.S. embargo makes an exception for medicines.

The only reason to fantasize about Cuban health care is to stick a finger in the eye of the Yanquis. For the likes of Michael Moore, the true glory of Cuba is less its health care than the fact that it is an enemy of the United States. That's why romanticizing Cuban medicine isn't just folly, but itself qualifies as a kind of sickness.

[Baladas]

Hmmm...me thinks Rich Lowry had got Castro pretty well pegged and that he doesn't believe the propoganda coming out of Havana about their wondorous healthcare system either.

[GOP_1900AD]

Yaaaaaaahhhhh maaaahhhhn!

Single payer healthcare now, maaaaaaaahhhn!

YAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! MAAAAAAHN!

Power to the people ..... mahn!

Down with deeee mahn, mahn!

/s

[mewzilla]

US Health Care Saves More Lives Than Socialized Medicine

[NonLinear]

So, how many Cubans died because Michael Moore was given the royal treatment for his ‘victims’, taking the cream of the Cuban health care physicians for propaganda purposes?

I guess he missed the part where Cuban doctors who are sent to assist in other countries frequently defect and make their way to America.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

It’s interesting that for portraying himself a communist, Michael Moore has kept the majority of the 200 million dollars in profits his mockumentaries have generated. He lives in a massive Manhattan penthouse on the uppper east-side and his multi-million dollar stock portfolio is filled with companies like Haliburton.

[BJClinton]

Cuba had the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America prior to the revolution

Interesting stat, is there a source?

[BJClinton]

Oh, and be sure to vote the column up at the bottom of the page.

[popdonnelly]

By not seeing this movie, I will save nine dollars, plus three dollars for popcorn.

[SuziQ]

When we lived in NJ, I had an OB-Gyn who, as a young man, had left Cuba, with his father, on one of the last boats out just as Castro was taking power. His Dad was an OB-Gyn at the time, and couldn’t wait to leave because he knew what was coming.

[phil1750]

We already have a gov. run health care system. It’s called the VA, and it is no different than any other gov ran system. A total failure. Can anyone name at least one efficient, cost effective, good, gov. program?

[tranzorZ]

I once had a business class in college on how we had to do a presentation on a great leader. I did mine on T. Roosevelt.

One guy, a student from some mainland South American country, did his on Castro. All of us did ones on personal heroes (except the gal who did hers on Hitler) and this guy was one of them. He mentioned how Castro supplied aid and troops to his country to out some creep dictator. For all I know, the dictator in this guy’s country was worse then whatever political leader came after. Even if that is so, this jerk should have known better to come into an American business class and do a puff peace on Castro. Jerk.

[standub]

America should switch to a medical system like Singapore’s. The amount of money we spend on health care would fall nicely.

[Maelstorm]

I always love it when people use Cuba as an example. I’ve had discussions with more than one friend citing the wonders of Cuban health care. I do think US Health/Insurance is out of whack but I have never been deluded in thinking that turning it over entirely to government bureaucracy was a method to “fix” it. I’m sure the Bush haters and dumb asses (usually synonymous) will eat Moore’s movie up. Yes Cuba is a Paradise with the best health care you can get for free.lol People who believe that don’t deserve the freedom they have.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

For the likes of Michael Moore, the true glory of Cuba is less its health care than the fact that it is an enemy of the United States.

So true.

[DaveTesla]

The Workers Paradise /NOT!
WARNING. Graphic Inhumanity

http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

Scroll down to the bottom of the page if you dare
to see Michael Moron’s Idea of paradise.

[DaveTesla]

Another example of the “great health facilities” that Castro has built for the Cuban people

On May 20, 1989, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro inaugurated the new maternity ward at the Julio Trigo Hospital in Arroyo Naranjo, near Havana. It was a very modern facility with 425 beds. Here is what he said at the time:

“Well, I think we have a magnificent hospital facility. It was finished a few weeks ago and has already started to render services, except the inauguration was delayed a little. That’s fine though because we are still on time. I was saying that it is a magnificent hospital facility. I asked the public health investor: How does it compare with other maternity hospitals? He said to me: Undoubtedly, this is the best one in Cuba. This is logical because I think that every new thing we make should be better.... As with every one of these hospitals, there will be something that will be amended, there will be things that are perfected. Even though they are similar projects, there is no doubt that each one will be better than the other. Here, however, we have the best maternity-infant hospital in the country.”

[DaveTesla]

“I’ve had discussions with more than one friend citing the wonders of Cuban health care.”

Show them this:

http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

[eric_da_grate]

Free health care is the very least the average Cuban should deserve for having to suffer that filthy communist and his suffocating misery, day in and day out.