Life expectancy in Cuba nears U.S. figure

Fidel Castro celebrated his 80th birthday in August, a remarkable achievement, given the 600 documented assassination plots he has survived. His longevity sheds a generous spotlight on a simple fact of life in Cuba’s socialist society: People in Cuba live long lives. In fact, the average life span of a Cuban citizen is equivalent to that of a citizen of the United States.

Cubans have undoubtedly suffered heavily because of U.S. policies that aim to isolate the country internationally, including its criminal support of terrorist attacks on Cuba and its decades-long blockade. Still, an extraordinarily resilient and courageous society not only survives but also has the figures to prove it.

The 2007 CIA World Factbook reveals that the average life expectancy for Cubans is 77.08 years. The book, an annual publication compiled by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, contains statistical information on countries worldwide. The Factbook notes that life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.

An April 22 Associated Press news story quoted a 70-year-old retired gas station attendant who candidly described life in Cuba: “Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don’t. But there aren’t elderly people sleeping on the street like other places.”

She may well have been alluding to the United States, a fabulously wealthy country just north of her island home. Here unimaginable wealth is concentrated in the hands of a microscopically small capitalist class, while on any given night nearly a million people go homeless.

In contrast, there is virtually no homelessness in Cuba, a relatively poor, developing country. The tightening of the U.S. blockade in the aftermath of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s former main trading partner, has caused shortages of food, medicine and other needed goods. To manage the shortages and protect against malnutrition, Cuba has a highly equitable food rationing and distribution system. Food supplies have markedly improved in recent years.

Why is the Cuban life expectancy equivalent to that of the United States? We’d have to start by noting that Cubans have free medical care. In contrast, in the United States more than 45 million citizens—not to mention the millions of undocumented—have no health insurance. Those tens of millions, many of them children, are left virtually to their own wits if they get sick, or hurt, in the capitalist system.

Obviously, a society that offers free medical care, with an emphasis on preventive health care, will have citizens with a longer average life span.

But there may be more at play here. Western scientists have been slowly coming to terms with the understanding that mind and body work together and that stress can be a major factor in bringing on illness. Cuba is a socialist society, where resources are used to meet human needs.

When a major hurricane hit Cuba, the people had been prepared and knew what to do. The community was prepared, and casualties were minimal. In Cuba, emergency preparedness planning and medical resources are designed to meet the needs of the entire community.

Contrast that with the U.S. government’s lackadaisical reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The non-response revealed more than incompetence. It exposed the essence of the capitalist system. People with money drove away before the hurricane hit, and those without money climbed to rooftops if they were lucky enough to survive the onrushing waters. Jazz plays again in the city, but for poor people the reconstruction of New Orleans has been nothing but a sick joke.

Although Cuba is a poor country, its citizens simply don’t have the stresses of life under capitalism, where millions of people are just a few paychecks away from life on the street and know it. This could well be part of the reason that the CIA Factbook shows that Cubans have a life expectancy roughly equivalent to that of the United States. The Cuban experience also shows how a society can be built to meet people’s needs, and for this—for presenting an alternative—the United States has sought to destroy its example.