Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Fidel Castro slams U.S. for battle over healthcare
20 Aug 2009 03:35:20 GMT
 Source: Reuters
HAVANA, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro criticized the United States on Wednesday for being willing to spend billions on its high-tech military but finding it difficult to approve healthcare reform that would protect its poor people.

He wrote in a commentary published on a state-run Internet site that huge military budgets are approved easily by the U.S. Congress but U.S. President Barack Obama is struggling to convince federal lawmakers to pass a bill that would "deliver health services to 50 million Americans that don't have them."

"What hope can that society offer the world?" he asked.

Obama's plan, aimed at making healthcare less expensive and more broadly available, has come under fire in the Congress, primarily from Republicans who argue, among other things, that it is a step toward socialism.

Castro pointed out that a free health clinic in Los Angeles recently attracted 8,000 patients, some coming from hundreds of miles away because they said they could not afford to go to a doctor or dentist.

The Cuban government prides itself on providing free healthcare to all Cubans.

"The lobbyists in Congress spend their August working against a simple law that would offer medical assistance to dozens of millions of poor people, the biggest majority of them blacks and Latinos," wrote Castro.

"Even a blockaded country like Cuba has been able to do that," he said, referring to the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba that the communist-led Cuban government blames for its fragile economy.

Castro, 83, has not been seen in public since undergoing intestinal surgery in July 2006. He resigned the Cuban presidency last year so his younger brother Raul Castro could succeed him. He retains a high public profile through his columns, which are published in Cuba's state-run newspapers and websites and read on state-run television and radio.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Bill Trott)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  World Humanitarian Day: What the World Should Know
Concern Worldwide

•  UMCOR Hotline for August 18, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  CWS emergency appeal: 2009 summer storms
CWS

•  The UMCOR Hotline for August 11, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  Thousands Expected to Experience Refugee Life at ADRA Exhibit in International Youth Event
ADRA - International

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Fidel Castro slams U.S. for battle over healthcare

•  Dangerous Hurricane Bill could threaten east Canada

•  Small rockets hit Afghanistan's Kandahar

•  North Korea to send mourners to South,signals softening

•  CIA hired Blackwater in plan to kill militants-NYT

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Facts & figures
United States of America Cuba

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Fidel Castro slams U.S. for battle over healthcare (1 minute ago)

Dangerous Hurricane Bill could threaten east Canada (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 G8 signals on climate change fall short - experts (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 World Humanitarian Day: What the World Should Know (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Climate talks need a dose of top-level political will (1 minute ago)

Maps
 Tropical storm Claudette (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-06-29T025412Z_01_CAR09_RTRIDSP_2_HONDURAS-PRESIDENT-CHAVEZ_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/CAR09.htm

(L-R) Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Cuba's Vice-President Jose Machado Ventura, Honduras' Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and Bolivia's President Evo Morales pose for a picture during the ALBA summit in Valencia, Venezuela ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Thu Aug 20 03:37:00 2009