Re: Roy Medvedev interview (on Putin)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Doss wrote:

>I see the most amazing distortions of reality about the country in the 
English-language press, and not just the mass media. For instance, 
Edward Herman wrote a very well-intentioned article on Znet about the 
Russian healthcare system that was, unfortunately, wrong. He could have 
just called up a Russian clinic and asked. Lifespan in Russia has not 
dropped due to a collapsing healthcare system, which Herman, if I 
remember aright, asserted. Male life expectancy has dropped 10 years; 
female life expectancy by about 2 years. That should tell you off the 
bat that it has little to do with the state of the healthcare system, 
and a lot to do with a giant increase in alcoholism and stress among 
Russian men and a greatly increased availability of alcohol in 
post-Soviet Russia.<

Actually, Herman said the following:

>There is also the attempt to blame the medical crisis on alcoholism, 
which one Russian doctor is quoted as saying, "is in first place," and 
there are "ingrained habits" so that mending this safety net will 
require "surgery on millions of dark Russian souls." But the articles 
cannot escape the fact that the drastic decline began with the ending of 
the Soviet Union and the installation of Yeltsin and reform, and the 
opening article does note that, "Asked when his life took its turn for 
the worse, he [Anatoly Iverianov] does not hesitate.<

Chris Doss:
>In fact, Russian healthcare is about the same as it was in the Soviet 
era: free and bad, although you are expected to give the doctor a 
gratuity. For instance, I had an operation on my lower gum in a state 
clinic in Kaluga. I gave the doctor $3. For treatment of frostbite in my 
fingers, I gave about $1.50 to the woman who lanced the blisters. A 
friend of mine just had work done on her ear, and she bought the doctor 
a bottle of cognac. In fact the majority of the income of Russian 
healthcare workers is probably in the form of such gratuities from 
patients.<

Two years ago one out of six people in Russia were infected with TB. 
That's sixteen million people. If Russian healthcare is about the same 
as it was before the counter-revolution, then something else is going 
on. I think we all know what that is. We are dealing with economic 
collapse. Poverty and the lack of proper health-care in prison and in 
follow-up care is the main cause of the spread of TB in Russia.

A January 26 2003 Boston Globe article reports on what has changed:

The Soviet medical system took special care of people with TB, making 
sure each patient was fully recovered before being released from the 
hospital. Recovering TB patients received better apartments and better 
working conditions. Families and friends of anyone who suffered from the 
illness also received treatment. The system, like much of the centrally 
planned Soviet economy, was unwieldy, costly, and inefficient, but with 
the support of the communist state, it worked.

"The system made it a goal to make sure every person was accounted for," 
said Tamara Tonkel, who grew up in a family in which everyone - her 
father, mother, and brother had the illness. "Now you cannot organize 
people. So many people are unemployed. Before, people were not afraid to 
say they had TB. Now they are afraid of losing what work they have."


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