Fidel Castro salutes Obama's health care reform as 'success'

Mar 26, 2010, 15:18 GMT

Havana - Historic Cuban leader Fidel Castro saluted the US health care reform promoted by US President Barack Obama, and described its approval as a 'success' - if a somewhat belated one.

In an article under Castro's name that Cuban state media published Thursday, the elderly communist leader said the political wrangling that preceded the approval of the bill late Sunday in the House of Representatives was 'an important battle.'

However, Castro, 83, under whose leadership Cuba lays claim to having developed a model system for training doctors and delivering health care to all, chided the United States for taking so long to get around to it.

'It seems like something really unheard of that (the US) government has approved medical attention for the immense majority of its citizens 234 years after the declaration of independence, in Philadelphia in the year 1776,' Castro said.

Cuba already reached that feat 'half-a-century ago despite the cruel and inhumane blockade that is still in place and was imposed on it by the most powerful country there ever was,' he added.

Not one to deliver unqualified praise of the US, Castro used the opportunity to up the stakes. He called for the US to pay attention to climate change and reform its immigration rules.

Obama was 'an unquestionably intelligent and sufficiently well-informed person,' Castro wrote. But the US leader also needed to 'see how far his country is from the model it preaches for humanity.'

Castro did not mention the comments that Obama made Wednesday, describing the Cuban government's recent actions against political dissidents as 'deeply disturbing.'

'Today, I join my voice with brave individuals across Cuba and a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba, and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people,' Obama said.