"The population of Cuba is only slightly larger than that of New York City. In the three decades of the global AIDS epidemic, 78,763 New Yorkers have died of AIDS. Only 2,364 Cubans have." To find out the particulars, see the NY Times article: A Regime's Tight Grip on AIDS.
Cuba, an impoverished country with few resounces, indicates that throwing money at health care is not the answer.
This Times article is enlightening and worth the time to read. Our Public Health service could learn a lot from studying Cuba -- but we choose to demonize that country instead.
A few years back, I visited an AIDS hospital in Cuba. It was in a rural setting, the staff were humane, and the few patients who lived there were there by choice. "Institutional" was not a word that came to mind.
