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Life Expectancy in Communist Cuba is Higher than The United States for the 4th Year in a Row (medium.com)

submitted 4 months ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 19 points 4 months ago

Not sure why Cuba is singled out but like most countries with decent healthcare have a higher life expectancy than the US.

[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Probably because stark contrast between the richest country on Earth treating its people like shit, and country which is harshly embargoed, attacked and sabotaged by it for over 60 years and still having better healthcare. Key difference: capitalism vs socialism. For full picture a comparable, not embargoed and capitalist country should be thrown into comparison, Haiti for example.

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago

Oh, it seems other sources say differently and the article has no source so I have no idea where it's from. I wouldn't have know if I didn't start looking at life expectancy in other countries.

According to World Bank Group from 2021 it seems Cuba is ranked 82th with 73.68 years in life expectancy while the US is 59th with 76.33 years.

Haiti is like 169th with 63.19 years but another comparable nation Costa Rica is 45th with 80.3 years.

United Nations data is only different by less than 0.5 years but ranks the US higher.

How the US treats it's citizens is shitty and I like how Cuba promotes coops but let's not spread misinformation.

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 4 months ago

That's fair. Don't you think the main point still stands? The US is abysmal for healthcare and is comparable to a much poorer nation which it embargoes?

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee -1 points 4 months ago

I'm pretty sure that at this point everyone on earth knows the US has absolutely atrocious healthcare and even countries with a budget lower than it's poorest state can do better. Comparing it to Cuba doesn't really make any additional point in my opinion though.

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

American’s must not live on Earth then, because anytime I try to have this conversation I get the same, typical bullshit anti-socialism propaganda and American capitalist innovation arguments.

So no, everyone on Earth does NOT know that America’s health care is abysmal.

[-] Tak@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago

Comparing it to Cuba is actually quite remarkable to most Americans who think of Cuba as a shithole. The wealthiest country in history versus the island that country has actively fucked with for decades.

https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/2_Probabilistic%20Projections/5_Life%20Expectancy/1a_Both%20Sexes/United%20States%20of%20America.svg

https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/2_Probabilistic%20Projections/5_Life%20Expectancy/1a_Both%20Sexes/Cuba.svg

Just the fact that both of these are as close as they are is appalling for most Americans in my experience. The US is so wealthy it should look like this:

https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/2_Probabilistic%20Projections/5_Life%20Expectancy/1a_Both%20Sexes/Denmark.svg

But the US also spends twice as much on healthcare per capita as Denmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 0 points 4 months ago

Hm, I think the kinds or categories of differences might be significant. Enough for legislators and policy makers, and I think enough for residents of different countries to get some perspective. If there's no context or the context is not well understood, how would one know if things can get better or worse in a meaningful way?

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 months ago

Enough for legislators and policy makers, and I think enough for residents of different countries to get some perspective.

We can’t have that: we can’t have the threat of a good example specter

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 4 months ago

yeah fair point, do you think it would make sense to say that some have knowledge of it besides academics & people in think tanks? like politicians i guess

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago

Politicians generally aren’t going to be interested in knowing it, because they generally answer to the donor class that wants the threat of a good example suppressed in the first place, and want our shitty for-profit healthcare system to stay the way it is: a cash cow for themselves. Most think tanks would also want it suppressed, because they’re funded & controlled by the capitalist class as well. Corporate media aren’t going to want to tell us that Cubans have a longer life expectancy, either, because they too are owned by the capitalists who don’t want us to know it.

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee -1 points 4 months ago

I think the fact that US healthcare is a joke all over the world is a way better perspective than a comparison to Cuba's average lifespan (Even if it were accurate).

For the average person reading an article like this a headline saying "US healthcare is the laughing stock of the world" is a lot more effective title than "Cuba beat US average lifespan for the last 4 years".

If you want to seriously compare healthcare then comparing accessibility and outcomes would be a better stat but not to one specific country but all of them. But that would not make much of a news article, more of an actual study.