The Real Sicko Pictures: Cuba's Healthcare

Wow.

I don't know what else to say. Wow.

I'm linking to this over on my blog, too.

Think Michael Moore uses this place?

I guess these are the pictures from the stuff they left in the editing floor... LOL

Like I said, these are actually quite tame. I've seen pictures with body fluids, rats, and all sorts of horrors you could not imagine anywhere, much less at a hospital.

That, people, is castro's Sicko healthcare.

~ Josue

I don't doubt that Cuba may have been glorified as far as health care goes, but if anyone here thinks we aren't getting screwed royally by the government and Health insurance companies, you really should broaden your horizons.

Do you honestly believe that these photos are taken from a real hospital. Come on, this place looks like it hasnt been used in years, and that picture of a woman, probably is from a hospital in cuba but it doesnt look horrible. That building looks like its used from crack dealing not health care.

A man named Charles Wiley (http://www.aim.org/who_we_are/speakers/wiley.html) spoke at Grove City this spring...he is a renowned reporter and was held in Cuba while working as a radio correspondent.

He told me a story about a man (I'm pretty sure it happened to someone else, not Charles himself) who was in Cuba from the US and he fell in the street and got a nasty wound on his arm...it was a breading-ground for infection and needed treatment ASAP. The man knew too well to never set foot in a Cuban hospital...he called a friend who knew a Doctor in Cuba who was running a secret clinic in a hotel with a full staff and better facilities than an actual hospital...the doctor rented out a room and had his patients pay in cash to protect everyone...now that would be a scary situation to be in.

Thanks for posting pictures of the Walter Reed Hospital since the rooms have been renovated.

As an American physician, I can say without reservation that our health care is the best in the world. Period. Anybody who debates that it isn't is simply uninformed and should go spend some time in American county hospitals.

Having said that, I want to say that pictures do not tell the story about healthcare. If you go to any county hospital and take pictures of the front lobbies or the baseboards or the janitor rooms, it'll look like a terror zone--> dirty, nasty. Maybe even show mold (gasp). This is part of why Walter Reed took such a bad rap--> because WR is one of the best training hospitals for the armed forces in the country. A picture of dirt or vagrancy doesn't tell what's going on behind the scenes.

Informed fact, however, does tell you that in Cuba, what's going on behind the scenes isn't great health care.

I am a college student who has travelled to Cuba. The Havana Hospital looks nothing like this, this is probably some old poor clinic out in the more rural areas of Cuba, where yes, it is possible to see this sort of thing still, but not representative at all of an actual hospital in Cuba. I can assure you this man took pictures of one of the oldest, worst clinics he could find on the whole island.

ShiningCity, Good points in defense of our healthcare--not perfect, but by far the best.

~ Josue

If course it doesn't -- check out my new post on Cuba's Medical Apartheid. The link is above right, titled " The Real Sicko II: Medical Tourism in Cuba."

Everyone please look Fidel Castro in the mouth. You can see he is disfigured because even the leader of that country can not get a decent pair of dentures.

I really don't see anything that shows these are pictures of a hospital or even "the oldest, worst clinic . . . on the whole island."

These could be picutes from the innercity of Philly or Detroit, both of which I have seen personally at the same time I was fearing for my life. Actally looking at the pictures again, the innercities were worse.

Why did Castro bring in doctors from Spain when he became ill last year? Hum! Where does the very rich Mr. Michael Moore go when he's ill? Nigeria? Cuba? Russia? Tahiti? Where?

...please go see the movie. Sicko was about greedy US insurance companies playing doctor, their vise-grip on the wallets of our representatives, and the ripping-off of hard working Americans who pay their premiums but aren't really covered.

Angela- you saw what you were supposed to see, what you were allowed to see. I have family there, there are no clean sheets, no antibiotics,the equipment is outdated and rarely in working order. This is in Havana.Not some "outpost." If you want clean sheets and decent food, your family has to bring it.
My relatives have told me this in person while they were on a short visit here. It would not be safe to tell us this any other way since the government listens to their phone conversations, blocks internet communications, and spies on them 24/7. Look up "Potemkin Village." You will learn something.

DEFECT!!!

I do agree that our medical system is not what it used to be and exorbitantly expensive. We had to go to the emergency room last month. We seemed to be the only ones who thought the place was for emergencies. The staff acted like they were at a ladies luncheon. Maybe they need to make the signs bigger. However,medical care in Cuba is good evidence that the answer is NOT socialized medicine. Those pictures don't come close to describing the nightmare of medical care in Cuba for the average citizen.

They rank USA ahead of Cuba in health care.

keep up the good work...the lies must be exposed!

It is sad to see how bad the logic is here. We are you are refuting the complicated argument presented in Siko by showing state of one supposed hospital in Cuba? And you don't provide the name, the location, the context? If you want people to take your position seriously, I would suggest that you make a better effort in presenting your side. Perhaps speaking with recent immigrants from Cuba would be a good start. They might provide you with interesting information. But please stop insuling our intelligence.

See the thing about these photos, and any good journalist will tell you, is that you have to CREDIT where you took the photos. Why should I believe that this is Havana Hospital?

On top of that, these photos are obviously of an abandoned hospital. Look I can do the same thing. Check out the misery at this UNITED STATES hospital!!! http://www.mantenostatehospital.com/mshinteriors/intro.html

OOOHHH the anguish. Lets get serious, I would rather go to a dated looking hospital and not pay anything (except taxes from my paycheck) than to pay for ridiculous nonsense that is our health care.

Thats an abandoned building... nice try. The first picture with the women doesnt look bad at all, she looks pretty comfortable.

The movie - and few of us who live in America, for that matter - does not dispute the level of medical care in this country. In fact, the movie points out how well the US medical community does, given the situation.

What the movie compares is how insurance companies here profit from medical care and how other developed countries do not allow any third-party to profit, like our insurance companies do.

We should let our doctors do their jobs without interference from profit-driven insurance.

Looks like we're the among the few here who actually saw (or understood) the movie.

Cecil Country is fulla Bushchit, Can't deal with the facts as depicted in Moore's "sicko" movie, so shows photos of some woman in bed? Cuba's economy has been sickened for 45 years since Castro took over and the U.S. has tried to starve these poor people just because Dictator Batista and the American mafia were kicked to the curb. Fact is about "Sicko" is that Moore took VOLUNTEERS for the Firefighters from the NYC cleanup post 9/11, who lost their health insurance here and took them to Cuba where they got great free health care for their lungs clogged with asbestos. They also got free health care in G.B. and France. The U.S. is ranked 37th in health care in the world, spends 17% of it's GNP on health care, and is 50th in life expectancy. I dare any Conservative to deny those facts, and try to make a case for all the lies from LIEsites like this one about HR3200 here: http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/images/BILLS-111hr3200I H.pdf