I don't know if I agree or disagree. Maybe a little bit of both. The U.S. has the best doctors in the world. The overall balance of health care, quality of doctors (as in, they're at least as good as "American" doctors), availability of medicine and cost of this care is better in Western Europe. The PRACTICE of medicine and research is best in the United States, while cost and access is a travesty. But especially in states with a concentration of top specialists, like California and Pennsylvania, you have theoretically the best health care in the whole world.
I know from personal experience, I see one of the three best doctors in the entire world for my condition. It is somewhat expensive, although I have insurance. In Europe there's no one who is her equal (I was forced to check when I still hadn't found proper treatment). The philosophy of how they treat things like chronic pain disorders is simply more serious in the United States.
But part of public health is availability of care. Cuba, I think, proves that even lacking the top tier of technology and research (which they are capable of, but lack the money to develop those facilities and institutions in the same way as the U.S.), overall public health is better when everyone has it. The answer is simple: preventative care. There's no concept of that in the U.S. We can handle types of cancers that no one else can, but our population develops the disease at rates that demonstrate that we don't prevent its occurrence in the first place. So Cubans are healthier than Americans and live longer.
The American system is unbalanced more than anything. In the effort to make medicine profitable, to spur innovation, we've spawned unwanted ways of making it more expensive. The issue is complex. Americans also think, ideologically, that if you can't afford to fix yourself when you're sick, you weren't working hard enough in the first place. Or if you're too sick and it's too expensive to keep you alive, you should not be burdening everyone else. Very little public comprehension, or comprehension amongst policymakers, as to what makes the medical profession tick. If medicine weren't what it is right now in the U.S., I wouldn't have treatment. But it's also the reason my treatment is so expensive (and I think most Americans would consider my costs semi-reasonable).
I'd be fucked in Cuba. But therein lies America: it is the best place to be an individual, eh?
) of the forum. Brilliant political move, I guess.
I just keep reading this and it makes my day everytime hahahahahaha. Yeah, all Gringos are idiots! Stop the imperialism!!! Hail Chávez!!! 