According to the World Health Organisation a Cuban man can expect to live to 75 and a woman to 79. The probability of a child dying aged under five is five per 1,000 live births. That is better than the US and on a par with the UK. Yet these world-class results are delivered by a shoestring annual per capita health expenditure of $260 (£130) - less than a 10th of Britain's $3,065 and a fraction of America's $6,543. There is no mystery about Cuba's core strategy: prevention. From promoting exercise, hygiene and regular check-ups, the system is geared towards averting illnesses and treating them before they become advanced and costly.
The rest of the article is a helpful exploration of the factors that improve Cuban health. Not always what westerners want to hear: having to walk more because fuel is expensive and cars likewise.
It's valuable to be made to think about the interaction of social policy, attitudes, economy and health. For Christians this invokes the importance of seeing healing ministry whole: as potentially involving political decisions and changing systems (I think Bp Morris Maddocks made the same point in The Christian Healing Ministry and was it Cronin's The Citidal that has two doctors dynamiting the towns drainage system in order to force the council to rebuild them and so liberate the town from cholera or typhoid?)
First world results on a third world budget, Guardian.
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