Who's ready to go to Cuba?

I am. I'd love to take a trip to Cuba.

 

Exactly Why do we hate Cuba?

Rocket River
Communism . .i get but beyond that anything?

 

Well me personally.... I always found the language to be.. grating.

 

Castro has been on his deathbead for, what, about six months now?

Even if he WAS about to die, they could always turn him into Darth Castro.

 

Actually all he needs is a Goa'uld.

 

George W,I am your real father

 

i don't think that whole missile crisis thing sat real well.

 

Wasn't it Castro that marvelled at Cuba's socialized healthcare and the quality. If thats the case, why is he in a hospital in Spain with a Spanish
doctor?? Cuban healthcare is good enough for the people, but not for Fidel.
That should be his legacy. That and he should have come to the Houston Medical Center, as the US provides the highest quality healthcare in the world.

 

That is both true and untrue.

The U.S. doesn't have the best health care system in the world, and we aren't even in the top five. However, for people who are extremely rich we do have the top facilities, and we get sheiks and other billionaires coming here from out of the country when they are in need of medical attention.

 

FB, it would be more accurate, in my opinion, to say that if you can afford the best health insurance, a different thing from being extremely rich, you can get the best health care in the world. As the quality of health insurance has deteriorated for the middle class, the access of Americans to the very best of our health care system has gone down. My father's heart surgeon, and surgeon for other things, was Denton Cooley, one of the top handful of heart surgeons in the world. Dad had the old style Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Once he paid his annual deductible, he could get any physician and any medical procedure he wanted. And he was a university department chair. He had access to experimental drugs long before they came to market. Some worked, and some didn't, but he lived about 25 years longer than he was told he would in his early 30's.



D&D. Icy Conditions at Home and Abroad.

 

That is probably more accurate. But for folks living out of the nation like Fidel, or oil rich sheiks it is about having the billions of dollars.

I think ideally having both the best insurance and billions gives you the best, because there may be some things that even the best insurance won't cover or won't deem necessary.

 

FB,

But the words "won't cover or won't deem necessary" are dangerous. Medical procedures, the equipment, the medication, the physicians and the insurance and overhead that all must cover including huge amounts of medical malpractice insurance make doing every possible procedure "be damned the cost" great in theory, but in practical terms its flawed.

Insurance is a contract between an individual and a company to pool their liabilities and share the burden to reduce catastrophic costs for an individual. An insurance company must make a profit on a policy in order to stay in business. Why should a company take on a risk for not adequate compensation?

For the most part insurance companies expect to pay out what they've taken in (premiums), but expect through savvy investing to profit off the pooled money before its paid out.

 

The main sticking point would be that Castro nationalized assets owned by American companies and by Cuban nationals that fled to the States. We're still insisting those properties be returned, even though they were being used to exploit the Cuban people and allowed undesirable elements like the mob to flourish there. I would like to see the US give up the claims and move forward with the new Cuba. We eventually sucked it up after Mexico nationalized oil and disenfranchised American oil companies there. Besides, we've essentially taken all of Cuba's money they had in American banks, so it seems even to me. I think we could let by-gones be by-gones. There is even less at stake. But, the president is always worried about losing Florida because of the Cuban-American vote. Plus, Cuba is always doing something dumb at critical moments, like shooting down planes just when the US looks like they'll soften their stance.

 

yeah we tend to hold a grudge.....

cuba
iran
korea


all of this occurred before many americans were ever born.

 

This whole Cuba thing scares the hell out of me. When Castro dies, we'll have a bunch of folks in South Florida who think that they are the rightful rulers of the country and we'll have a bunch of folks in Cuba who won't cotton to rich Americans coming in and we'll have politicians and everyone else in the world trying to rig the game for their advantage. This calls for deft diplomacy and an appreciation of reality... two qualities I don't see in our current administration. In fact, I fully expect them to screw this up by trying to exploit it for domestic political gain instead of what's best for the US and Cuba. A long-term strategy is necessary, but lacking.

I'm resigned to the fact that we'll handle this badly and create headaches that will last generations instead of picking a sane course. Oh well. Elections have consequences.

 

Cuba could put Vegas out of business.


DD

 

JFK anyone?

 

You can actually go to Cuba now if you want. Just have to go to either Mexico or Canada first.

 

Don't get your Passport stamped or you will be labled a terrorist. It is still illegal to travel to Cuba.

DD