Health Care In Costa Rica – Rush Limbaugh

It makes perfect sense.. It’s only now after such a bill is about to be passed through congress do the insurance companies think of such an idea. I mean, people have known about offshore medical care for years and years.. Why haven’t insurance companies taken advantage of that too?? Now its like they are forced too as they may not be able to compete in the US. Im surprised they wouldn’t cover the whole deal – airline tickets, hotel room, etc. as all that would still be half the cost of similar care in the US. To cut your costs in half is no small thing. To send your clients on a airplane 4 hours away to do so just makes sense.. the only question I have, why haven’t they done this sooner?

[quote=”2BNCR”]Interesting and long over do. Think about this though, in the global picture, Costa Rica medical care is still much more expensive than many other countries. Do you think if this becomes popular that patients will seek out the cheaper countries?[/quote]

That may be true, however, the quality of doctors here is superb; I have a first hand experience. The closeness to the US and the fact that CR is much more socioeconomically advanced that all of its neighbors to the north is also ideal. I would not fly my wife 13+ hours to Thailand or India for health care. The comfort level with the culture and sanitation is not the same. Brazil and Argentina are also a bit far away.

I think there are really two different sets of circumstances that must be considered depending on whether the insurer is a genuine non-profit outfit or a for-profit one.

Non-profits certainly have an incentive to obtain care for their subscribers as inexpensively as possible. They exist primarily for the benefit of their subscribers. That could explain grb’s Washington State BC/BS plan’s posture. They’re comfortable to send their members to Costa Rica where good quality care is much less expensive.

For-profits, on the other hand, don’t have the same incentive. Their primary orientation is profitability rather than the welfare of their subscribers. Since they are free to set premiums wherever they wish, commonly with the approval of state insurance commissions, the higher their costs the greater their profits. They just pass costs through to subscribers adding their built-in, governmentally-approved profit along the way. And a built-in profit of (say) ten percent is a whole lot larger on costs of (say) ten billion dollars than it is on costs of (say) eight billion. Where’s the incentive to save?

I find it interesting (as a Canadian) that this trend has been politicized and according to Mr. L., in my interpretation anyway, the whole reason for the medical tourism trend is apparently in reaction to Obama’s health care reforms. I think the trend began when corporate entities controlling the American health care system made things so cost-prohibitive that it made sense financially to go to another country to have procedures carried out… to state the obvious. It certainly has nothing to do with the health care reform and it only makes sense that insurers capture that market, rather than have (heaven forbid) people without insurance (meaning, people not paying insurance premiums) paying their own way.

The insurance companies are going to try importing and imbedding the US corporate attitude regarding health to CR:

Medical care is only useful for profiting off of and the only goal is to extort insane profits by any means possible.

I hope the Costa Ricans are aware of what they are getting into and hold their ground.

Although I would generally approach anything out of this source with some skepticism, it would be interesting to see just how the deregulation of the insurance industry under CAFTA plays into this. anyone know?