The Cuba option
I have a modest proposal to add to this summer's health care policy debate: Let's legalize medical tourism to Cuba and make such visits eligible for insurance reimbursement. This idea should be welcomed on both sides of the political spectrum. For free market types, it provides added choice and competition, promising to reduce medical costs especially in the Miami area - the nation's most expensive region for health care. For progressives, medical tourism to Cuba would mean improved relations with the island nation, and it would give large number of Americans a firsthand look at a successful single payer health care system in action.
MARC JOFFE
Albany
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/11/EDQN196JHI.DTL#ixzz0Nw5FTqMR
Marc,
Terrific idea! I think even the Castro brothers would go for it:
Fidel: "What an opportunity to earn hard currency! We can charge whatever we want, short of inflated gringo prices, and the capitalist insurance companies will pay!"
Raul: "But how can we muster enough resources to keep up the charade that Cuba has a quality medical system, and keep these medical tourists coming? We're set up to create little Potemkin villages for a few visiting dignitaries like Michael Moore, not a steady stream of patients!"
Fidel: "When the strain becomes too much for the Cuban economy to bear, we will accuse some of the tourists of spying for the CIA and cancel the program. Who knows, maybe we will even find some real spies!"
Raul: "Brilliant, comrade!"
If such a plan were to go into effect, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it actually played out that way! However, I think the Castros would underestimate the intensity of the health care debate in the United States and the media spotlight that could be turned on their system, and that the arrangement would ultimately help to reveal the failure of state socialism.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))