Castro's Medical System

Joseph Farah's column in today's WorldNetDaily oozes schadenfreude, but that's OK with me, because I feel the same way.

What is the definition of irony?

It may come any day now when Fidel Castro dies – the victim of his highly touted system of socialized medicine in the worker's paradise of Cuba.

Even though Castro imported a doctor from Spain to treat his diverticulitis – an infection in the large intestine that rarely proves fatal in capitalist countries – the Communist dictator is said to be in grave condition following three failed surgeries.

It's not only irony, it's poetic justice.

Socialists in this country have been holding up Cuba as a model for medical care. How many times have you heard this lie? Yet, the real proof is that the best of Cuba's medical establishment couldn't successfully treat Castro for a routine ailment after six months.

Keep in mind, this is happening to the Comandante – not some sugar-cane harvesting peasant. It shows you just how bad socialized medicine gets. It atrophies to the point where it is incapable of healing, even when doctors' lives may depend upon it.

People on the far left, like the Castro-hugging Hollywood crowd, love to push for socialized health care in the US. It's fair, they say. It equalizes the playing field, so the poor have a chance for good medical care, just as the rich do.

But "fair and equal" has a way of becoming mediocre, and then lousy. Socialism rewards laziness.

The only people who believe Cuban medical care is equal to or superior to what we have in the United States are those who teach at universities, attend them or pay to see Michael Moore movies.

Don't let CastroCare (or HillaryCare) come to our country. It'll send us all to an early grave.