Public meeting - Socialist Cuba: healthcare for people not for profit

bristol | anti-cuts | event notice Wednesday January 23, 2013 22:03 by CPGB-ML katt at cpgb-ml dot org

7.30pm at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, Bristol

Public meeting with a report back from a recent visit to Cuba. 

Cuba shows that with an entirely publicly-owned health care system it is able to provide free comprehensive health care for all, achieving health statistics rivalling and even surpassing those of developed countries. 

As the NHS here is being torn apart through privatisation, putting profit margins of big pharmaceutical companies first, we need to understand that an alternative is possible. 

Come and discuss building for a future that works! 

Cuba has shown that with a health care system that is entirely publicly-owned, it is able to provide free comprehensive health care for all at a cost of only $362 per person per year, achieving population health statistics rivalling and even surpassing those of developed countries.

The difference? At no point in the Cuban system is there anybody who is driving up costs by making a profit. Moreover, the fact that the state is the sole provider of health care avoids the obscenely wasteful duplication, cherry-picking, and poor coordination of services that inevitably arise when multiple inter-competing private providers are involved. 

We are continually told by the powers that be that ‘socialism may be a nice idea but doesn’t work in practice’ and that although ‘capitalism may not be ideal’ it’s the best we can hope for - so don’t rock the boat. However, Cuba is a shining example that an alternative is possible, where the needs of people are put before the needs of finance capital.