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Source: American Thinker
Roundup: Media's Take
8-10-09

Humberto Fontova: Cuba's Healthcare a model for the U.S. says CNN

[Humberto Fontova recieved his Masters Degree from Tulane University in Latin American Studies. He is a journalist and author. Humberto has appeared on such shows as The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes, Fox and Friends, The Dennis Miller Show and various shows for Telemundo.]

The CNN report included clips from Michael Moore's Sicko as CNN's Morgan Neill, on location in a Potemkin Havana hospital, gushed about Cuban healthcare's"impressive statistics.""Cuba's infant mortality rates" he reported,"are the lowest in the hemisphere, in line with those of Canada!"

"Amazing!" probably gasped the type of person who watches CNN nowadays (Noyes gets a pass here.)"Perfect proof of"yes we can!" they probably high-fived."No wonder Colin Powell said"Castro had done some good things for his people!" No wonder Michael Moore catches so much grief from those insufferable Miami Cubans! Before Castro only they could afford doctors, as Cuba's huddled masses languished in sickness and poverty.

And indeed, according to UN figures, Cuba's current infant mortality rate places her 44th from the top in worldwide ranking, right next to Canada. (the lower the rate the higher the ranking).

What CNN left out is that according to those same UN figures, in 1958 (the year prior to the glorious revolution), Cuba ranked 13th from the top, worldwide. This meant that robustly capitalist Cuba had the 13thlowest infant-mortality rate in the world. This put her not only at the top in Latin America but atop most of Western Europe, ahead of France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Today all of these countries leave Communist Cuba in the dust, with much lower infant mortality rates.

And even plummeting from 13th (Capitalist) to 44th (Communist), Cuba's"impressive" infant mortality rate is kept artificially low by Communist chicanery with statistics and by a truly appalling abortion rate of 0.71 abortions per live birth. This is the hemisphere's highest, by far. Any Cuban pregnancy that even hints at trouble gets"terminated."

Also noteworthy: according to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the mortality rate of Cuban children aged one to four years is 34% higher than the U.S. (11.8 versus 8.8 per 1,000). But these don't figure into UN and World Health Organization spotlighted"infant-mortality rates," you see. So the pressure is not on Cuban doctors to fudge these figures -- yet…

Read entire article at American Thinker