[HCCN] fw: Wealth Care, by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Judith Robbins]

Begin forwarded message:
>
> Wealth Care
>
> December, 27 2009By Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
> As Congress wrestles over the parameters of a health care bill,  
> amidst maddened catcalls of 'death panels' and 'socialism!', I am  
> reminded of the experience of John Black, an old trade unionist,  
> revolutionary activist and journalist.
>
> Black, a fervent supporter of the Cuban Revolution, joined the  
> Venceremos Brigades, an annual trek of foreigners to the island,  
> who assisted in harvesting the sugar crop and other agricultural work.
>
> Although he was in his mid-to-high seventies at the time, Black did  
> his part, until the searing tropical heat, or perhaps the work (or  
> both) took its toll.
>
> Black was taken to a nearby hospital, and received what he called  
> "excellent treatment." As he was leaving, he reached for his  
> wallet, and began pulling out some bucks. The doctor looked at him  
> quizzically -- and then told him to put his money away.
>
> "We treated you because you were sick, Senor," the doctor  
> explained, "Not for the money."
>
> These words blew Black away, and this experience with socialist  
> medicine moved him deeply.
>
> What is even more remarkable is that Cuba was doing this during its  
> 'Special Period:, a time of economic chaos when its biggest trading  
> partner, the Soviet Union, stopped bartering things for things (as  
> in oil for sugar, for example) and began demanding cold cash for  
> trade.
>
> As of 2006, Cuba had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $45 billion  
> dollars--about the same as the Congo, or the Sultanate of Oman  
> ($44.1bn).
>
> The GDP measures the market value of goods and services purchased  
> within a nation over a given period of time -- usually a year.
>
> Do you want to know what the U.S. GDP was for 2007?
>
> Over 13 trillion dollars. 13 trillion.
>
> Guess which country provides free medical care?
>
> The richest nation in earth's history can't agree on how to insure  
> that its citizens get good health care, balking over the economic  
> interests of insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
>
> One of the poorest nations on earth (Cuba) not only provides free,  
> universal health care, but it provides well-trained, humanistic  
> doctors to developing and poor countries all over the world (in  
> fact, there are more Cuban doctors helping people overseas, than  
> there are from the UN's World Health Organization (WHO).
>
> We need to stop rapping about so-called Health Care: and call it  
> what it is: Wealth Care.
>

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