That’s been the big left-wing talking point as they all rally behind Michael Moore and Sicko, his film of lies and half-truths about the American health care system.  What they’re referring to is a 2000 World Health Organization study which ranked America at 37th in the world for health care and Cuba 39th.

Which sounds awful, given this run-down of what Cuban health care looks like:

* Why some patients are taken to the hospital in wheelbarrows instead of ambulances?
* Why patients must bring their own linens for the hospital bed and often, a fan, to combat the stifling heat and lack of air-conditioning?
* Why cockroaches and other vermin are present in what is supposed to be “sanitary” health facilities? Why many common medicines are not available? If Cuba can export cutting-edge biotechnological products to other countries, surely the US embargo cannot be blamed for not allowing medicine to enter Cuba.
* Why, in a 185-bed cancer center in Santiago where some 6,000 people are treated MONTHLY, there is a shortage of basics such as codeine, anti-nausea drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, antacids, laxatives, high blood pressure medicine, antihistamines, anti-depressants, contraceptives, vitamins and minerals? This particular hospital, sadly, is the norm, not the exception
* Why 41% of patients in Cuban hospitals are undernourished, particularly after surgery. Malnutrition risks increase with extended stays in the hospital, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health.

So how is it that a health care system where people are transported in wheelbarrows and have to buy their own sheets is rated just below America’s system?  The one that people travel from all over the world to get service in?

The 2000 WHO report based 25% of its score on the “fairness” of a country’s health care financing which is measured by how much more higher-income groups pay for health care than lower-income groups. We are constantly reminded by single-payer advocates that the U.S. spends more on health care than other nations and gets less as shown by our low ranking on the WHO report. Their circular argument seems to be “we need government-run medicine because reports show that we don’t have enough government-run medicine.”

It gets worse when you consider that the WHO didn’t necessarily calculate into the cost people pay for health care the taxes they pay to fund universal health care systems.

Regardless, anyone who tires to suggest that the American system of health care is only marginally better than the Cuban system is free to move to Cuba and enjoy all that government-provided medicine.