From our Bureau of Leftist Latrine American Medical Powerhouses with some assistance from our Bureau of Free Socialist Health Care
For sixty-five years, idiots around the world have been praising Castro, Inc. for its “free” health care system, often arguing that the existence of such a program justifies all the repression and poverty foisted on the Cuban people by its Communist military junta. Here’s the real deal: if you need even the most basic medications, you are likely to have a very difficult time finding them. And this crisis is so severe that even Castro, Inc’s Ministry of Public Health is admitting its seriousness.
Abridged and loosely translated from Diario de Cuba
In Cuba, all 3,000 pharmacies are state-owned, but the government is in financial ruin and lacks the funds to either produce or import medicines.
As a result, seven out of every ten essential medications are missing on the island. This is not an exaggerated “counter-revolutionary” claim; it was confirmed by José Portal Miranda, the Minister of Public Health of the so-called “medical power” (remember that?), who reported to the National Assembly that Cuba is lacking 70% of the basic medicines patients need. How many will be missing in five or six months?
Furthermore, the actual shortfall might be as high as 75% if we consider the Cuban government’s habit of manipulating official statistics for political reasons.
The national shortage, according to the minister, “is almost entirely concentrated on medications sold in pharmacies with a control card, which includes 80% of the basic medicines.” These are medicines for patients with serious chronic illnesses.
These control cards are essentially rationing books for medicines, similar to the “libretas” used for food. With the card, along with an ID, and plenty of patience to wait in line, the patient must go to the pharmacy assigned to them (mandatory) to acquire the medicine. There, their medical certificate is reviewed, and often the medicine is denied, with the patient being told to return to their doctor to certify that they still need it.
Minister Portal Miranda noted that of the 651 medications sold in pharmacies, 359 are missing! And the remaining 292 are not always available, as there are increasingly prolonged gaps in supply.
A key detail: the “libreta” medicines that are currently unavailable include many of the most necessary drugs for chronic illnesses, such as antihypertensives, anxiolytics, hypoglycemics, bronchodilators, and neuroleptics or antipsychotics.
There is likely no other country in the world today with such empty pharmacies. Cuban pharmacies no longer even have aspirin. The recent photos of any Cuban pharmacy with empty shelves are astonishing, pathetic, and sad.
Meanwhile, those who govern the country are making this crisis worse. None of them ask how many people in Cuba are dying or suffering fatal complications due to the lack of essential medicines.
A sign that the regime is aware of the severity of the medication crisis is that it now allows travelers to bring medicines into the country without paying customs duties, regardless of the excess weight of the luggage.
Of course, this has increased the underground trade in medicines, which already forms the nascent embryo of the future private pharmacy network that will exist in post-Castro Cuba. But this trade is risky, requiring evasion of police and inspector-thugs. Yet, it saves lives and heals the sick by providing medicines that are unavailable in pharmacies, hospitals, or clinics.
It doesn’t lack the funds, exactly; it just has higher priorities on which to spend them–like staying in power.