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Rush Limbaugh
Costa Rica: Stacy’s Insurance Company Makes Obamacare Plans
“CALLER: Oh, yeah, right. (laughing) But listen, as an employee of an insurance company, we got our benefit booklets this week and guess what we’re doing now? We have set up facilities in Costa Rica and we are paying 100% of all medical charges associated with heart valve replacement, bypass surgeries, knee replacements, hip replacements, and spinal fusion if you travel to Costa Rica to have it done. Now, it does not cover the travel expenses.
RUSH: Hold it a minute. No, no, no. You gotta start at the beginning. You call here and say your company is writing policies now, and you have set up facilities in Costa Rica. ”
You can see the entire transcript of the Rush Limbaugh telephone call at [ http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_111309/content/01125115.guest.html ]
After you have taken a look at the full transcript, I would love your comments on this…
Probably one of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies. Our Blue Cross insurance from Washington State already covers 70% of all medical expenses outside of the US. Bottom line is that it makes complete financial sense: would you rather pay 100% of a $4,200 caesarean section in bill (includes anesthesiologist, pediatrics, two surgeons, total surgical team of 8 and 2 nights in CIMA) or 80% of a $30,000-$40,000 US bill? As a business, I would rather save the $19,800-$29,800 and add it to the bottom line. The #1 reason for such a cost disparity is the cost of liability due to litigation. So many unecessary tests and procedures are performed by the medical community simply to keep the lawyers away.
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?
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=”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.
[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]
Mexico is really the only country with a well established medical tourism cluster that’s closer than Costa Rica. Their prices are very similar to prices in Costa Rica but, Mexico has had a lot of negative press recently.
Fly further (India) and it’s even cheaper but with longer travel comes the chances blood-clotting complications such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism.
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?
The bottom line is that the insurance companies are trying to capitalize on certain levels of profit. Their profit levels may be hard to maintain, with the current healthcare debate in the U.S. As a disabled U.S. veteran, I and my fellow disabled vets are fortunate, the Veterans Health Care Administration takes care of all our service-connected disabilities in Costa Rica; cost free.
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.
I think there are two bottoms several bottom liners here:
1 The high price of mal practice insurance that is passed along to the patient.
2 Doctors greed and the notion that they have the right to be multi-millionaires because they studied for 8 years.
3. The ridiculous amount of work and money it takes to become a doctor. In this sense, the university system is failing. Look how many doctors Cuba has.
There needs to be more doctors, less mal practice suits and more discipline to those doctors that commit mal practice. There needs to be criminal penalties for malpractice.
It all starts with the cost of doing business and then it goes to greed.
Doctors cost of school
Doctors cost of mal practice insurance
Lack of doctors
The lack of ability to EASILY compare prices.Where else do you go to spend money on service with no guarantee and without knowing the price?
Just like a menu, prices should be posted so there will be some competition. But to create competition, we must have more doctors, that means cheaper schools and eliminating the overkill education required to become a medical doctor. This is just a way for universities to make more money.
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.
So what do you think will happen to the cost and availabililty of health care in Costa Rica if a large percentage of Americans start doing this?
My guess is that:
1.) Doctors will take a higher percentage of private buisness (Americans) versus government (citizen) patients. This will reduce availability and increase wait times for those on the government plan.
2.) The best doctors will be the most marketable with expatriate patients, and this would encourage them to move away from government health care to take advantage of USD chasing their skills. As a result, less competent doctors will be more highly concentrated in the public system.
I could be wrong about all of this, but this phenomena sounds entirely like the coastal real estate market. USD have driven prices so high that most citizens cannot afford to buy into the desireable areas any longer.
I hope I’m wrong.
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