World Health Organization Praises North Korea Universal Health Care But...

From Fox News: "The World Health Organization's director noted malnutrition was a problem in North Korea when she visited in April, the first such trip to the country since 2001.
But Margaret Chan, who refused to be accompanied by foreign reporters on her visit, also praised the isolated regime for providing universal health coverage and said programs like one for child immunizations and its response to a malaria resurgence make it the "envy" of many other developing countries."
(emphasis mine)
Oh, yes, universal coverage must be great compared to that evil United States that actually has private insurance. And this is what you get when you have political bureaucrats running things- insane responses instead of telling the truth.
But in reality, this is what universal health care looks like in North Korea: "North Korea's health care system is in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing barbaric amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight for payment in cigarettes, in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said Thursday.
North Korea's state health care system has been deteriorating for years amid the country's economic difficulties. Many of its 24 million people reportedly face health problems related to chronic malnutrition, such as tuberculosis and anemia, Amnesty International said in a report on the state of the health care system.
A 24-year-old defector from northeastern Hamkyong province told the human rights organization that a doctor amputated his left leg from the calf down without anesthesia after his ankle was crushed by a moving train when he fell from one of the cars."
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/14/amnesty-report-doctors-nkorea-amputate-anesthesia-work-candlelight/?test=latestnews
I really feel sorry for the population of North Korea. They are under the rule of a tin horn dictator and it is killing them. I am willing to bet that most of the general population wants North Korea to go to war so they can get the aid and the help they so desperately need and want.