Monday, May 28, 2007

Michael Moore, Cuba and Health Care

By now most of us have heard at least a rumour of Tubby Moore's latest fictional documentary.
In this one (Sicko) he "proves" that Cuban Health Care is better than that in the USA. He quotes longevity and infant mortality statistics to support his conclusion.
As the author of a book on Cuba I beg to differ (as always he selects his facts, prejudicially applies them and then comes up with a fallacious comparison).
The New York Times also takes a run at him:
Dr. Butler said some of Cuba’s shortcomings may actually improve its health profile. “Because they don’t have up-to-date cars, they tend to have to exercise more by walking,” he said. “And they may not have a surfeit of food, which keeps them from problems like obesity, but they’re not starving, either.”
So if only America banned cars (and perhaps even movement between cities like Fidel does) and starved their people they too could brag about their health care system.
“Actually there are three systems,” Dr. Cordova said, because Cuba has two: one is for party officials and foreigners like those Mr. Moore brought to Havana."
And there are a couple of other considerations that once again bring into disrepute Moore's conclusions.
One is that Moore isn't the only liar. Fidel and his apparatchiks certainly have little familiarity with the truth and as noted in the NYT story, the exflux of huge numbers of refugees results in counting births not deaths and the huge number of abortions brings down the infant mortality rate.

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