If this material, along with the other attending medical procedures, becomes effective and safe, with no adverse side-effects, it will be one of the medical breakthroughs of the century. Other medical precedures, pioneered by the Cuban Medical Establishment have proven to be most beneficial to many recipients worldwide.
These procedures have been pioneered in a country where government intervention and control of medical applications are not imposed. It would behoove other governments to take note in the interest of their constituencies instead of the religious factions therein.

TB

US imperialists try economically to strangle or suffocate the Cuban people while the Cubans try to develop, export and thereby earn foreign exchange to lift the living standards of the Cuban people.

The DR plays a big role in this jousting between the Cubans and the US imperialists.

The DR bourgeoisie and upper layers of the DR middle class have traditionally flown to the USA -- Miami, FL; Rochester, MN.; and Houston, TX for complex medical services. Now, a significant segment of the DR bourgeoisie and middle class are flying to Cuba for these complex medical services, even though some of the elements of these social strata are violently opposed to socialism, especially Cuban socialism. These Dominican elements have discovered that the Cuban services cost about a quarter of the US price and, after 20 years of experience, that the competence of Cuban physicians is at par with that of US physicians or above.

The DR medical profession and US imperialists are alarmed.

Belial, while I agreed with you on your assessment of Cuban medicine. I must say that the middle class in the Dominican Republic disappeared a long time ago or never existed. I was listening to a merengue the other day and the singer had corus that went like this " el probre e pobre y el rico e rico" this is the situation in the Dominican Republic today, We see that there are people drving cars that cost 80k U.S., that is an amount of money that many dominican would not earn in a life time. There are people that are surviving, they have a modest house and a car, but by no means they are middle class.

dagtan,

Yeah, a lot of them are phonies. But I admire their Miami condos. They throw lavish parties. How they afford these things I don't know. They are supposed to be good at banking and financial services.

The phoniness of their middle class status partly explains their bargain-hunting in Havana for medical services. They don't want the DR poor people to enjoy access to Cuban doctors.

In Haiti, there are 600 Cuban doctors in poor communities and 1000 Haitian medical students studying in Santiago de Cuba and Havana.

The DR has medical programs with the US where a family practioner gets about $147K, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, and ask almost the same in the DR. Their clients are mostly foreigners and drug companies conducting experiments.

For that, the DR could afford 500 Cuban doctors.

In Haiti - Venezuela, a Cuban doctor gets about $200 a month.

Some US doctors in the DR face malpractice suspensions in the US and can't be insured.

By the way, many elements of the US middle class are nothing but white-collar workers.

Cuba achieved the lowest children's mortality rate in Latin America in 2007, with only 5.3 deaths per each one thousand born alive, outstanding figure compared with that of the developed countries, including the USA.

US reactionaries ... or, in other words, the GOPs ... are so bestial and depraved that they can't appreciate the significance of this 5.3 per 1000 figure.

Mexico. - The president of a Committee of Health of the Mexican State of Tabasco, Fanny Lisbeth Castro, expressed thanks for the work performed by a Cuban medical team.

A total of 47 doctors and nurses from the Caribbean island went in support to the citizens of Tabasco after flooding from rivers and persistent rains hit the area this past October.

The community leader highlighted the help received at that critical moment and expressed her special gratefulness to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

We say to the doctors who left many bonds of fraternity —and in each heart an eternal one— “Thank you Cuba” because I have seen them assist tirelessly, with a great interest in each resident,” she added.

[Meanwhile as the Cubans saved lives and relieved suffering, some lascivious US tourists were running around looking for child prostitutes ... the free market.]

Oh golly what a paradise they have over there in Cuba,it makes you wonder why they are all trying to get in styrofoam cups to escape their chains when they got it so good.Let us hope they dont run out of guards to watch the athletes perform when they go over seas.Yes and those cuban doctors and scholars winning all those Nobel prizes.How many? They should let somebody else win for a change and they should stop taking jobs away from the cab drivers also the greedy cheaters

Maybe they are pretend doctors like Che whats his name who never recieved a diploma for the study of medicine,but he was very good at public executions when he was minister of Injustice

"They [Cubans] are all trying to get in styrofoam cups," wrote gouletcolonial.

0000000000

On any given day, maybe 10 Cubans illegally go to the USA. And, on any given day, maybe 1000 Mexicans do the same thing. But the lying cappie [capitalist] press and its parrots in the USA and elsewhere play up the 10 Cubans a thousands times more than the 1000 Mexicans who got in. The disparity in numbers is striking because Cubans get a warmer welcome in the US if they arrive with "dry feet;" so, in effect, they are being lured. Most of the Cubans who want to get to Miami want to enjoy the Miami's vices -- traffick in drugs or humans, former jailbirds ambitious for the big theft, current crackpots, streetwalkers, or parasites who crave automatic eligiblilty for US welfare benefits as "dry feet." Most of them are scum and Miami is where they belong.

Too bad that only 10 can get in on a normal day.

"Oh golly what a paradise," wrote gouletcolonial who pretends to have a sense of humor.

0000000

Reactionaries snivel and whine when they hear that the standard of living of the Cuban people is the highest of any people in Latin America and Caribbean[LA/C]. Reactionaries are snide, using words like "paradise" to refer to Cuba.

Sould the living standard of the Cuban people [mabye 98% of the Cuban population] be compared with the living standards of the

(1) LA/C bourgeoisie [maybe 0.5 percent ] and LA/C middle classes [maybe 10 percent.] OR

(2) to the living standards of the US working class [maybe 45 percent of the USA] OR

(3) to the living standards of the various peoples [may 90 percent] of Latin America and Caribbean?

Cuba easily loses against the regional bourgeoisie and middle classes and against the US working class.

But Cuba wins against the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sniveling reactionaries can stand the third comparison. .

we heard all about it from uncle joe and the workers paradise,remember Krushchev and how they were going to bury us.....well do you remember? your time is coming soon also running pendejo communist dog ,you sniveling suck up to party functionaries ....WOW does anybody but losers really believe that commie claptrap.......look at eastern europe with far greater and deeper cultural traditions than little cuba they rose up and threw the tyrants out your time is coming VIVA CUBA LIBRE

Cappie and pro-cappie parasites of big capitalist countries sustain themselves temporarily by stealing from less developed countries or from themselves like the sub-prime mortgage scam.

At the moment, they're in rapture over Iraq where they steal about 2,000,000 barrels of oil everyday which at $90 a barrel comes out to be about $180 million a day or $1.1 billion a week.

Still this bourgeois trash tries to preach about morality and legality.

This capitalist thief ... or his flunky ... believes he is not a loser if nobody catches him.

The GOP dictatorship over the USA (1) cheated itself into power in 2000 and 2004, (2) treats the will of the US people on Iraq with contempt, denying all accountability to the US people and (3) disregards the rule of law whether the US Constitution, US Treaties, or US laws.

But US and foreign reactionaries and other worthless types love this dictatorship of the reactionary sector of the US bourgeoisie ... the GOPs.

By "cappie" or "capitalist", I mean a millionaire. The IRS defines a cappie as individual whose net worth is at least a million dollars, excluding the value of his principal place of residence.

I don't know why the IRS excludes the residence.

Using this definition, the IRS found , in 2004, that the USA had between 8 and 10 million cappies or millionaires. In other words, the US bourgeoisie constitutes a huge 3% of the people.

See this supporting study.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/....tates_the_land_of_89_million.html

In most countries, the bourgeoisie is less than 0.5 %.

With 9.3 million people, the DR bourgeoisie may have about 49,000 cappies or millionaires.

But this seems like a lot for the DR.

Some say DR bourgeoisie reaches 1% of the people if you count the big drug dealers in cocaine from Colombia and ecstasy from Belgium as well as the financial sector which launders huge amounts of drug money.

But I don't buy it.

snivel and whine snivel and wine it sounds like the daily special at the daily worker,get back to work"we will grind the peasants under the wheels of our carriages as we go by" feed them snivel and wine and make them eat biscocho remember make them but do not allow them

TO THE RAMPARTS TO THE RAMPARTS " the bourghies are coming the bourghies are coming"

"snivel and whine snivel and wine it sounds like the daily special at the daily worker,get back to work"we will grind the peasants under the wheels of our carriages as we go by" feed them snivel and wine and make them eat biscocho remember make them but do not allow them"

0000

Interesting.

But why do you pretend to be uncouth? Isn't the reality satisfying?

" the bourghies are coming the bourghies are coming"

oooooooo

Oh no! They're already squating.

Belial;
Why don't you go to school and REALLY study ECONOMICS???
If you would do that, I think you would find that this old world is built on the flow of money from one nation to another ane back.
Control of an economy is not up to a Central Comittee, but is the reasult of clear thinking on theuse of the "factors of production" andtheir "distributive shares" operating FREELY in the OPEN MARKET.
The old Soviet Union was intent on controlling every aspect of economic growth within it's boundries (read that as enslaved psuedo-states). The results of that scenario was wholesale slave labor of the peasantry, a failure to make progress in the development of their economy and infrastructure. With one of the world largest reserves of petroleum, they couldn't produce enough to supply themselves and had to buy elsewhere. Their only claim to industrial advancement was in their ability to produce weapons of war. That broke their backs economically and the STATE emploded as a result.
TB

The gospel according to TB.

In the beginning, there was darkness.

According to your gospel, nothing has changed.

Oh, but things HAVE changed, Belial.
The example set by the Soviet Union, with it's dictatorial form of government, it's total disregard for human rights andit's obvious dictum of using bordering nations as a buffer against the "outside world" opened the eyes of the rest of the world as to what would happen to THEIR society should they embrace the "Utopis" of socialist doctrine aas defined by Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and their ilk.
The economic theory propounded by those people proved to the World that the model was severly flawed and could only function under a dictatorship (not the benevolent kind either) whose goal was absolute control of the population with respect to their everyday activities; even to the point of dictating how many sheets of "papel de banjo" could be used to clean oneself after natural functions were completed.
An you, my friend, are a living example of the type of leadership such a system produces.

In all your postings, you have used language designed for only one purpose; that is to denegrate the oposite line of thinking and not through well thought out propositions for better government and social progress. If your goal has been to capture the hearts and minds of those whom you wish to encapsulate within your philosophy, you have failed miserably.
Basic psychology dictates that followers must be wooed with milk andhoney, not with vinegar an salt such as you are/have been using.
Chavez has tried using your method andlook at what he has accomplished. Zilch! His efforts to change the basic structure of the political structure in place in Venezuala has met with strong opposition from the very people who have supported him in the past.
While I am not a follower of "unleashed" capitalism, it is a far better system of economics than socialism in that it fosters the efforts of the individual to better himself economically rather than have the government "spoon feed" him.

Capitlism supports the completre FREEDOM of the individual, whereas Socialism does not, requireing the individual to subjugate himself to the dictates of an overwhelmingly strong central authority. That I cannot support, nor can anyone who embraces the freedom of choices in governing ones own destiny.
While there will always be those who can adapt and go forward economically and socially, there will also be those who cannot for one reason or another. The latter are those who are not equipped to compete with their fellow man because of personality, character and lack of perserverance in goal accomplishments.
Progress always has depended upon those who have the mental wherewithal to accomplish the goals set forth by themselves and society as a whole. It is this ingredient that seperates the "men from the boys" of the constituant societies of nations.
People must always think in very broad terms and not be seduced by passing fancies.
You have been seduced without thebenefit of orgasm

About 95% of the world lives under a capitalist economy system. About 85% of the world lives in extreme poverty. Capitalism was global before the now fashionable "globalization." Capitalism is an almost absolute failure and it becomes a bigger failure everyday. Only a relatively small minority of parasites in the world ... most inhabit the highly developed capitalist and imperialist countries that prey on and pillage the poor and less developed capitalist countries ... escape the oceans of poverty that capitalism generates.

who are the 5% goofy and stupid and enslaved to live under the other enlightened system?

"Who are the 5% goofy and stupid and enslaved to live under the other enlightened system?"

000000000

I would certainly include Cuba, Laos, and Belarus, and increasingly Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, and to a lesser extent, but still colorable, China and Vietnamn.

There is nothing either goofy or stupid about these peoples. This view is shared by the US and Canadian bourgeoisie which increasingly outsources technical middle class kinds of employment to them.

Explain, since you're so smart, how an economic system that produces poverty in 85% of its instances is a winner.

what about the grass eaters those high living north koreans wow do they know how to live........just a big party all the time and by the way did you learn your math in cuba with all those Nobel prize winners.......it sucks

"What about the grass eaters those high living north koreans wow do they know how to live..."

0000

Oh thank you! That was an unforgivable oversight. I ... most certainly ... include the grass eaters too in the 5%. If I omitted other elements of the 5% ... since you know so much ... don't hesitate to toot.

Belial, you conveniently ignore the fact that while man has been the major player on this earth, there have been those who are smarter, who have more inrelligence whith which to function in society, and who because of these surperior qualities, have been at the head of government, ownership, businesses, etc. Those who did not possess those unique qualities have been seft to fill the other niches of our societies. That they are in such a position both socially andeconomically is unfortunate, but it is a reality which you categorically ignore in your importuning. If you look at the world through a clear set of glasses, you will, no, you must conclude the same thing.
There are those who are more ambitious, thus more successful, than those who do not possess the ambition to succeed against all odds. The latter are the leaders and the former are the ones who hover around and pick up the scraps that are left behind. That's just the nature of humanity.

Thus, the 85% you speak of who live in "Poverty" are really those who either do not have the mental capacity to succeed or do not have the ambition to do the same.
The other 15% are the ones who lead the countries; whether they be of a humanitarian bent, or the opposite, matters not. That is their posterity and their destiny.
What you advocate is for the population of the world to "roll over and be had"; not to make the attempt to progress by their own strengths and ambitions, but to allow a government, or a ruling entity, to make their decisions in life for them, to assign them to whatever jobs there may be for the benefit of the State, regardless of their natural inclinations and/or attributes.Humankind has not progressed beyound the animal state to be relagated to such a demeaning position. Humankind has progressed past the animal stage because they have ALWAYS sought a way to become better than they are currently experiencing.
Your way is the anti-human way.

TB

In only three years, Operation Miracle has made possible eyesight restoration operations on 1,003,288 blind patients at 49 ophthalmological centers in 31 countries on three continents by the end of 2007. This is part of a noble effort to turn into a reality Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez’s dream of surgically operating on six million people affected with eyes problems by 2016.

http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/....ight-thanks-to-operation-miracle/

Meanwhile, the US imperialists cure a half dozen blind people somewhere and then spend a million dollars publicizing and bragging about their meager philanthropy. Uninsured US citizens and insured US citizens whose companies deny coverage and who are not entitled to medicare and US public assistance also got their sight back from Mission Miracle, too.

Meanwhile, 1.2 millions dead Iraqis, a gift from the "good guys" of the US.

http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78

No doubt ... a la 1.2 million dead iraqis ... the US imperialists are wondering whether they must murder the million people whom eyesight was restored by Mission Miracle since the former patients may feel or see that the Cubans and Venezuelans are their friends. And now that the former patients can see, they are more dangerous to US imperialism than when they were blind.

US imperialists are worthless. The only thing that US imperialists offer the sick of the world is Jesus Christ who stopped making the blind see 2000 years ago.

I will not deny the contribution of the Cuban and Venezuelan government's contribution to the world, as you statistical data represents. I have no other statistical data whith which to refute their claim and will categorically support their efforts along those lines.
What I do refute as a GROSS misstatement is your allegation of 1.2 million dead Iraqis at the hands of US Troops. That misstatement is refuted by the Iraqi Government reports themselves.
Perhaps those Iraqis that Saddam killed are included in your total count? The majority of Iraqis killed have been at the hands of the various Sectarian Shi'ite and Sunni Militias battling for supremacy, by Al Queda murderers against the Iraqi people and by other Muslim factions from foreign (Syria and Iran) malcontents aligning themselves with the various insurgensies within Iraq itself.

It is equally important to point out that universally, the deaths by bombings, assignations and other forms of genocidal murders have decreased dramatically in recent months since the "Surge" began and cooperation between Sunni and Shi'ite factions has been effected.
Al Queda's actions have been significantly mitigated in almost all provinces and Iraqi control of those provinces has been significantly increased.
That you are not completely honest in your assessments of the internal conflict in Iraqi is very significant in that you continue to insert into your commentaries intense derrogatory statements against the US and ignore the true facts toward that end.
I am reporting you to the FBI for their assessment of your commentaries on the pages of this periodical. I believe you are violating your right of "Freedom of Speech" by such commentaries.
Are you a Foreign Agent?? You certainly act and sound like one. We'll let the Justice Department decide.

TB

"What I do refute as a GROSS misstatement is your allegation of 1.2 million dead Iraqis at the hands of US Troops."

000000000

The US aggression and occupation have occasioned the deaths of 1.2 million people. When someone knowingly begins a process that can foreseeably produce a certain outcome, that person is responsible for the outcome even though he passes the buck and pretends innocence and denies complicity.

But for the US aggression and occupation, somewhere like 1.2 million people would be alive in Iraq today.

And this is not the first time that the US imperialists have done something like this.

" Sunni and Shi'ite factions" and similar pretexts

000000000

It's standard US military strategy to cook up a "civil war" to hide US acts genocide against the besieged population at large. The Nazis used the same trick.

The US-orchestrated extermination of the Iraqi people has already reached 1 out of every 25 Iraqi citizens. If this is enough, the US imperialists will call off the so-called "civil war." If it isn't enough, the imperialists will cause the Iraqi death toll to "surge" again ... perhaps, to something like 3 million casualties.

Belial;
You attribute the cowardly murders of these people to the "US imperialists" without regard to the true perpetrators of the acts.
Sectarian violence plus the murderous and cowardly act by Al Queda agents have been the cause of all those deaths regardless of your allegations. And yes, there has been collateral deaths as a result of arial incurisions into known Al Queda strongholds in efforts to root out those vermin. For themost part, these deaths were in conjnction with supporters of Al Queda themselves.
If you hate the US so much why don't you follow the same course of action that your compatriot Al Queda member did and join in the active insurgency yourself.
I suggest that you are too much of a physical coward to do so and really have no intentions of joining that infamous group of cowardly murderers. You're not far removed from the same paint brush; in fact, I'd venture to say you are one of their active agents.
I have repoorted you to the FBI Intelligence for action.

Havana, Jan 15 (Prensa Latina) Cuban first Vice President Raul Castro on Tuesday welcomed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is on a brief Cuba visit.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={72DF2EED-18BC-4539-9ADE-1CAAE6AAD189})&language=EN

The official welcome ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution was also attended by Vice President Carlos Lage, Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

Lula"s agenda includes a tour of the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center on the outskirts of Havana and a meeting with the nearly 500 Brazilians students studying at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). [ Number of students will be doubled.]

This is Lula"s second official Cuba visit as president since September 2003. He had made several other visits but as leader of the Workers" Party.

Brazil, after Venezuela, is Cuba"s second commercial partner in the region..

wow second commercial PARTNER....that means most quantity right well gee whiz I would have thought it was Suriname or Belize not the largest economy in latin america I suppose being a PARTNER means that they can hardly wait to be enslaved like the cubans I dont think so.........a buck is a buck..... dream on comrade.......even the Venezuelans woke up before they went down that road............and remember those 500 doctors or nurses wont have to drive taxis to supplement there income in Brazil ....that is unless the workers from the workers party take over.....by the way comrade who won the elections in cuba on sunday ...I am still in suspense

They say, cappie, if you want to find a lawyer in the USA, get locked up in a US jail, then talk to your cell mate.

belial what happened did you get left behind in angola.....ligten up the war is over

"Ligten up the war is over" gouletcolonial advises.

0000

Not quite.

Since Canadian stooges of the US genocidists are busy killing in Afghanistan under the command of their imperial US masters who hold and treat their northern flunkies with contempt, the Canadians too must have an estimate of the Afghan mortality that the attack and occupation of coalition has occasioned.

What is it?

6,000,000 dead.

Do you blame this unprecedented massacre on the Cubans too?

"What happened did you get left behind in angola ...," gouletcolonial asks.

0000

Angola is everywhere where the class struggle ... against the US imperialists and their racist flunkies ... is waged.

Lamentably, the war is not yet over.

"Remember those 500 doctors or nurses wont have to drive taxis to supplement there income in Brazil ...," gouletcolonial rejoices.

0000

You so concerned about the welfare of the Cuban health care specialists. Do you weep for them too? Or do you sob?

What do you call the services that the Canadian military personnel are rendering to the US imperialists in Afghanistan?

Where will the US imperialists send their Canadian flunkies next?

comrade please dont go jihad on us .....although people with inferiority complexes like yourself make excellent suicide bombers

"excellent suicide bombers "

0000

Most of those poor souls had no idea that US special operations freaks or US intelligence agents planted those bombs in the victim's vehicles which were later blown up by remote control devices operated by US murderers to generate a so-called "civil war" that justifies or hides the program of mass or general genocide of over 1.2 million Iraqi people that the US imperialist are pursuing in Iraq.

How could these poor souls be "suicide" bombers?

belly you really are out there on the grassy knoll....of thought...you really are trapped in the twilight....and you may never come back to reality

"Peru Honors Cuba Medical Brigade"

"Lima, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) The town of Pisco, 155 miles south of this capital, paid tribute to the Cuban medical brigade that has been assisting that town and others nearby with two field hospitals for over six months.

The homage took place Sunday in Pisco's Plaza de Armas, organized by municipal authorities and solidarity groups with Cuba.

Pisco's lieutenant-mayor Fernando Lopez noted that physicians and other health workers of the brigade arrived almost immediately after the earthquake that devastated the region, which killed nearly 600 people and provoked great material destruction.

Lopez stated the Cubans have dedicated their best efforts to aiding victims, and have assisted so far about 150,000 patients."
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={1C95EF8C-1DBB-409D-B896-B3AD62F13A03})&language=EN

0000

Are the imperialists and their running dogs helping the Peruvians recover from the 2007 earthquake?

beli are you looking forward to watching the Cuban basketball team playing in USA ?

Third Cuban Ophthalmology Center in Guatemala
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={DEE20AE4-B01C-402C-A4C5-6CDBC78E1148})&language=EN

Carmen Esquivel Sarria

"Guatemala, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) The third ophthalmology center equipped by Cuba in Guatemala will be soon opened in the western department of San Marcos, to provide free services to thousands of indigenous people and the population of mixed race in the area."

"The Guatemalan vice president, who recently made an official Havana visit, praised the high level of medicine in Cuba, and its cooperation in the Central American nation."

"A total of 300 Cuban doctors are currently rendering their services in 17 of the 22 Guatemalan departments, and the opening of the ophthalmology hospital in San Marcos will benefit over 700,000 locals, where 70 percent of the population is poor."

0000

The propaganda slime of US imperialism hollers that Cuban doctors don't practice medicine, rather they drive taxis.

Cuba [and DR]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_travel#Cuba

Cuba has been a popular medical tourism destination for more than 40 years. Thousands of patients travel to Cuba, particularly from Latin America and Europe, attracted by the "fine reputation of Cuban doctors, the low prices and nearby beaches on which to recuperate."[20] In 2006, Cuba attracted nearly 20,000 health tourists.[21]

Medical treatments included joint replacement, cancer treatment, eye surgery, cosmetic surgery and addictions rehabilitation. Costs are about 60 to 80 percent less than US costs. For example, Choice Medical Services, a health tourism provider, provides a hip replacement in Cuba for US$5,845/C$6120/€4227.[22]

Con't

con't

Cuba has hospitals for Cuban residents and others that focus on serving foreigners and diplomats. In the 2007 American documentary film, "Sicko," which criticizes the US healthcare system, producer Michael Moore leads a group of uninsured American patients to Cuba to obtain more affordable medical treatment. "Sicko" has greatly increased foreigners' interest in Cuban healthcare. A recent Miami Herald story focused on the high quality of health care that Canadian and American medical tourism patients receive in Cuba.

The Cuban government has developed Cuban medical tourism to generate income for the country. Residents of Canada, the UK and most other countries can travel to Cuba without any difficulty; a tourist visa is generally required. For Americans, however, because of the US trade policy towards Cuba, travelers must either obtain US government approval, or, more frequently, travel to Cuba from Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic.

Con't

Cuban immigration authorities do not stamp the passports of US visitors so that Americans can keep their travels a private matter.

Dominican Republic

One of the medical tourism destinations nearest to the US mainland is the Dominican Republic. The country has become a popular destination for plastic surgeries, hip-replacements, knee replacements, bariatric surgeries, eye surgeries and all other types of surgeries and medical treatments. The costs are generally 50 to 75 percent less than cost of similar procedures in the US

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_travel#Cuba