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In light of the CAFTA and INS monopoly breakup, how many retirees would like to use there medicare benefits here in CR.? Probably with the exception of Hospitalization.
You may be seen by a Primary Care Physisican, show you medicare card and be covered under medicare and perhaps even have the 20% office visit copay waived due to cost differential between US and CR.?Does anyone know how many retirees live in CR. The CIA estimated 20 to 40K, full and partime residents. Any hard figuers, anyone?
The real number is elusive since so many people are ‘perpetual tourists’ but we tend to read the 40K number you quote more often than any others.
Are you saying in your posting that Medicare is now available in Costa Rica? Or that you know that it will be here at some stage in the future?
We have heard reports before that Medicare is coming to Costa Rica but to date, NOBODY has been able to show us any reputable sources that confirm this…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comSince we can’t afford Medicare as a country right now and it is only going to get much worse in the future without drastic changes, why would the US government incur more debt to further extend services to citizens in foreign countries with no legal recourse in the US court system?
Frankly, I’d rather have CAJA, which is cheaper by far, and there is no co-pay as far as I know. In fact, when I get into the CAJA system in August, I’m ditching medicare part A — the one that’s costing me $96 a month in favor of CAJA which will only cost me $30 mas o menos! There have been rumors for years about medicare coming to Costa Rica, but I don’t see it happening any time soon, if at all.
I would much rather ditch all insurance premiums and contribute to the CAJA when I retire before I am 55 (10 years OR LESS). Family insurance premiums in US for couples in their 40’s with three or more children is approximately $1,200/month. A typical salaried employer will only cover the employee’s portion or approx. $400/mo. I am an owner in a corp. in US and insurance premiums go up 7-10%/year. Project that out to 62, combined with a different age risk bracket and you are looking at $3,000 – $4,000 +/- per month at age 62 or whenever the collection age will be set at that point in time. That is an issue so serious, it will break many small businesses, the back bone of USA and only help create a Grand Canyon of the already accelerating socioeconomic abyss.
It will double the 40,000,000 who are already uninsured. The healthcare system in America went down the tubes when they created those for-profit monsters called Health Maintenance Organizations. American needs universal health care and they need it now, and it would’ve been implemented under Clinton had people not started screaming about socialism! For the money, Medicare is a great system in the US. At least you don’t have to get approval to see a doctor or a specialist, or get pre-approval to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance! LOL
I wish the US would hurry up and get on with it. Canada has been experimenting with private clinics for certain procedures and these people hold the US system up as great success story. Private clinics generally address conditions which have longer waiting lists and that medically have a quick turnaround time ->high profit.
All the tough stuff (and patients) can continue using the publicly funded system.
In the universal system in Canada waiting times can be longer for some procedures, but at least everyone has equal access to it in the end.
If that’s socialism I’m all for it!Universal health care in a corporate, capitalistic environment is a long shot at best. In addition, the government has a horrendously disgusting track record of spending our tax money on entitlement programs.
One of the biggest issues in the US is we are a highly litigious society with incredible malpractice insurance premiums. In Texas, they are feeling the positve results of capping punitive damages in medical malparctice cases. The result has been a 7,000 + influx of doctors from other states and now even the smallest towns have an Ob/Gyn. Premiums have dropped 54% in 2 years. A very small percentage (5-7%) of every dollar spent goes to actual patient care.
In order for health care to be affordable, tort reform on a national scale is imperative. Japan does not have these issues, because there are so few lawyers in Japan…the losing side pays all the costs. Tort reform in the US will not happen unless the composition of our congress changes from the current 75% with Law degrees. A congress full of lawyers feeds the self-perpetuating legal machine.
It would be ideal to have a system like Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Netherlands, but keep in mind the compact geographic scale and population of those countries vs. the US with 5 time zones. There are many clinics in the US that are going to a cash only basis for services with a 20%-30% discount by bypassing insurance & administration.In May I was on George’s tour and we stopped for his usual visit at Hospital CIMA San Jose. We fortunate because the CEO wanted to meet George for sometime so she visited with us for about a half hour or so. It turns that she was born in the US and has managed two hospitals for the same corporation in either Michigan and Texas as I recall. I asked her why US health care was costing and seemed so inexpensive in Costa Rica. She said the simple answer was that she wasn’t paying the 24.7% administrative costs that is being paid in the states to manage our health care system. She claimed that greater portion the costs in the US are centered on the administration necessary to bill all the insurance providers that every hospital, doctor, or clinic has to deal with in the course of daily business. She concluded by saying that in Costa Rica you don’t have an either industry or career field dedicated to billing the insurance companies!
If anyone is interested in understanding how stupid the US is being with what we are paying for our health care should check out this Frontline program from April 2008, “Sick Around the World: Can the US learn from the rest of the world how to run a health care system?” (the link is for online viewing: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/). This program was the foundation of several of the questions I asked her about during our interview with her.Thanks
Tom on a Budget in Portland Oregon
“Soon-to-be the Orosi Valley”I saw that Frontline program. It is truly frightening how the US healthcare system is “managed.” It takes a Ph.D in administration to figure out how to bill any of these insurance companies. Most other nations stress prevention and wellness, whereas the US is more interested in treating the symptoms with high priced drugs that make an obscene profit for Big Pharma. Lifestyle diseases — type 2 diabetes, HPB, high cholesterol — are approached differently in other countries, too. People are actually given nutritional counseling to reverse these things rather than being drugged with dangerous medications that only benefit the manufacturer. And nary a person in any other country except the US is forced to file bankruptcy over medical bills, which is the number one reason for bankruptcy in this country. Ya gotta wonder what the idiots in charge are really thinking. Oh yeah, silly me, it’s about the PROFITS!!
The idiots in charge are the idiot citizens who continue to vote into office the politicians who are bought and paid for by big pharma and the healthcare system for profit. There have always been choices to move away from this one party system we have of the Democrat-Republican political machine. But the american character is just not there for that kind of bold experiment.
It is easy to rail against corrupt politicians. It is harder to take the responsibility for their existence. I am not at all hopeful for the U.S. situation and so am apathetic.
Good point. No one has had the political courage to do anything about it because they would be voted out of office. I remember the Governor of Illinois, Ogilviy losing his bid for re-election soley on the basis of his passing a state income tax. It was the financially responsible thing to do. That was over 30 years ago and as far as I know the state and it’s citizens survived it. Voters either need to wake up or someone has to risk not getting re-elected for anything to happen, Fat chance IMHO. I’ll go with the Caja when I’m ready to pull the trigger on the Big Move.
I currently live in Canada and have experienced it’s health care system. I needed open heart surgery in 2006. When asked when would I like to have it done (needed to be done within 12 months)I responded asap. The following day I was contacted and told it would be done in 5 weeks time.
Whilst in Hospital recovering from surgery, I had first a ruptured duodenal ulcer which required immediate repair, then whilst recovering from that developed arrhythmia which required insertion of a pacemaker. My entire stay lasted 21 days.
Whilst in hospital another patient was admitted with issues with his pacemaker.
He had had it changed in Florida and was paying $8000 per day whilst in hospital just for the room!!!! The procedure to replace his pacemaker took 4 days and cost an extra $35000.
In comparison, pacemakers are changed here in Canada as an outpatient procedure and it takes 45 minutes.My point here is that my complete process of three operations and 21 days stay cost exactly $0… yes nothing. If I had been in Florida (or most any State) it would have been easily over $500.000
I’m just adding to the information that in the US the only people making money is the Drug companies.
Here’s a question… If you get $800 billion for research to find a cure… Why find it?
When I retire to Costa Rica… CAJA will be my route.
Pura Vida
Enduro… in the Great White North!
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