Changes

==Health-care==

==Health-care==

[[File:Cubans girls.jpg|left]]

[[File:Cubans girls.jpg|left]]

Health care in Cuba follows the model of [[socialized medicine]]; all doctors are employees of the government, and the government does not charge citizens for health care.  The Cuban health care system is excellent, particularly for such a small and isolated country, providing care by use of community-based family doctors, who must visit each of the 375 homes in their community once a year - patients with chronic conditions are visited four times a year.  Expecting mothers are seen a minimum of 12 times during their pregnancy, and access to residential care facilities for pregnant mothers with complications is available, not only for medical conditions but also in cases of the mother living in a remote location far from medical facilities.   There is a thriving [[biotech]] industry, producing pharmaceuticals for international sale, including 24 research facilities and 58 manufacturing plants, producing a number of successful vaccines, antigens and cancer treatments, and nearly 70% of all essential medicines used in Cuba are manufactured on the island, ensuring low prices and stability of supplies.  The industry has rapidly become the country's second largest export (after nickel), and is on track to produce revenues of $1bn by 2016.   Cuba also operates a doctor program around the world to help in resource-scarce areas of the globe, and there are about 15,000 Cuban doctors working in  66 countries all told- more than the combined total of all G8 countries.<ref>http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0814/1224322124372.html</ref>

Health care in Cuba follows the model of [[socialized medicine]]; all doctors are employees of the government, and the government does not charge citizens for health care, though many believe the services provided are alarmingly inferior for anyone but the party elite. [[Fred Thompson]] wrote:

:''"Castro won't allow observers in to monitor his nation's true state, but defectors tell us that many Cubans live with permanent malnutrition and long waits for even basic medical services. Many treatments we take for granted aren't available at all -- except to the Communist elite or foreigners with dollars. For them, Castro keeps "show" clinics equipped with the best medicines and technologies available."''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.townhall.com/columnists/FredThompson/2007/05/03/the_myth_of_cuban_health_care&Comments=true|title=The myth of Cuban health care|author=Fred Thompson|date=2007-05-03|accessdate=2007-08-14|language=English|format=HTML|work=Townhall.com}}</ref>

The country's chief neurosurgeon, [[Hilda Morina]], publicly protested the government's role in the deterioration of the health care system.

 

Since 2010 there have been cutbacks in services, and whether the system can be maintained at the current level is unknown.  The country's chief neurosurgeon, [[Hilda Morina]], has publicly protested the government's role in the deterioration of the health care system.

{{Clear}}

{{Clear}}