Thread by @TiredOldWriter

Here's what it was like checking into a hospital in Cuba, as an American. I waited three minutes. A nurse came to greet me. She hugged me and looked me in the eye and asked me if I felt well enough to walk. She wore an old fashioned white paper nurse hat.

I followed her to an office. She handed me a small plastic tub containing new toiletries, a toothbrush, comb and towel in it. Like a hotel.

She sat at a computer and asked my name, birthday and contact info for family and friends. She asked about my health history, medications, current symptoms. She squeezed my hand to put me at ease.

I was then taken to my room. That's was the whole registration process. Not a word about insurance or copay, no signing forms promising to pay if insurance didn't. Nada. Just "Who are you and what hurts," plus free toiletries, including a wand to heat the bathwater.

Yes, bathwater. My room had a bathroom. I shared the room with two other patients.

A team of doctors came to see me together as my first exam. Four of them, each with different areas of specialty. They listened to my symptoms and then discussed what it might be, right there.

The debated. This was done with nurses and the other patients and their visitors in the room. Others offered opinions, too. Non-doctors, with informed and thoughtful suggestions. This is because the public is assumed to be smart enough to understand medical concepts. Communal.

When I did a cardio stress test on a bike, there were 50 people from the neighborhood watching. The hospital invites anyone interested in medicine to observe such tests. The doctors show the results on a large screen and teach folks what each reading means.

In the US, doctors pretend to be Gods who hold secret info. They act like they think they're dicinely chosen sorcerers. This is to justify the cost of medical schools. In Cuba, medical knowledge is openly shared and widely understood. Medical sociology differences are profound.

In addition to examining and testing me, the doctor team invited my family to dinner and asked them about my condition. Had they noticed any changes? How was my diet? Did I have supportive relationships? This is genius. Sick people don't always notice things about themselves.

The entire experience was mind-blowing. The medical system in acaba is respectful and loving. In the US, it is contemptuous and humiliating. Asking scared, sick people if they can pay to get help is sadistic and degrading. The stress makes people feel instantly worse.

I left the Cuban hospital with a diagnosis, a treatment plan, and a sense of well being because everyone had been kind and concerned, not rushed. I was treated like I deserved kindness.

In the US you are made to feel rushed, dismissed, inconvenient, stupid.

Cuba does this with very little money. The US could do it, too. But our society needs the lower classes to feel undeserving of respect, alone, needy. That way, we will want to *buy* things to improve our self worth. We will want to work for nothing, just for insurance benefits.

Before you comment about the problems in Cuba and get instantly blocked, realize I am aware. This post isn't about those issues. It's about medical care. Period.

Oh. Also, meals in the hospital cafetería are free not only for patients, but also for their families. And the food is healthy amd homemade. In the US your family has to pay to eat at the hospital, and the restaurants are often massive chains, like Subway.

To the handful of people commenting things like "you dumbitch, Cubans don't get that same treatment): I block anyone who is abusive. ALSO, there are tons of problems in Cuba. Lots of shortages. True. But I was treated to exactly the same care as the Cuban patients in my room.

Jesus. I need to stop looking at the comments and QTs. Both the head of the Heritage Foundation AND a Cuban ambassador are chiming in. In this era of "persecuting our enemies" in the USA, I feel profoundly unsafe in the United States these days.