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Thread on an experience with Nicaragua’s healthcare system:
I was near San Juan Del Sur last Sunday. Slipped and suffered a deep cut, had to get stitches. I’d been in the area pre-2006, under the neoliberal govt of Bolanos, and expected to find the same small clinic in San Juan.
I was near San Juan Del Sur last Sunday. Slipped and suffered a deep cut, had to get stitches. I’d been in the area pre-2006, under the neoliberal govt of Bolanos, and expected to find the same small clinic in San Juan.
When I arrived, I found a sizable new medical center and ER. I was met right away by a doctor who checked my vitals, then given stitches, and checked up on again. The place was gleaming, with new equipment and a pharmacy on site. This is all for a fairly small town.
At the end of it all, I asked how much I owed.
“Gratis,” the doctor said.
I was stunned, and told her that in my country the visit would have cost hundreds of dollars, and maybe more.
She shrugged and said, well, Nicaragua is different.
“Gratis,” the doctor said.
I was stunned, and told her that in my country the visit would have cost hundreds of dollars, and maybe more.
She shrugged and said, well, Nicaragua is different.
The new clinic in San Juan is part of a massive expansion of free healthcare in Nicaragua under the FSLN, all the way to the Atlantic Coast, which is connected to the rest of the country by highway for the first time. Immunization drives are also underway against dengue.
Next door, in Honduras, an epidemic of dengue has hit, and doctors have been in the streets for weeks protesting the privatization of an already hollowed out medical sector. The US has imposed its shithole system on them and would do it to Nicaragua if it could.
Thanks to the FSLN’s relationship with Cuba, many Nicaraguans have received free, first rate medical training in Havana and brought their skills home, enabling the dramatic expansion of healthcare since 2006. Contrast this with Bolsonaro’s Brazil: nytimes.com/2019/06/11/wor…
Nicaraguans don’t take the gains of their revolution for granted. At the 40th anniversary of the FSLN’s defeat of Somoza, many told me they feared losing free healthcare & education during the 2018 violent coup attempt & were celebrating last year’s victory as well. (Video soon)
When local media asked me what I thought of the Sandinista revolution, I said it was an inspiration for me as a US American. In the heart of empire we still have to struggle for rights like free healthcare & education that Nicaraguans won. Viva Sandino. el19digital.com/articulos/ver/…
