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Strange Bedfellows: Me and
Rush Limbaugh In Costa Rica
By Sandra Stephens
"Why Rush Limbaugh would go to Costa Rica if
Obama healthcare plan passes."
I saw this on Yahoo news this morning. My
morning chuckle -what a dramatic story! Oh
my God, Obama's plan will destroy US
medicine - presumably because more people in
need of medical care will have access to it,
and those with endless ability to pay for
costly private medical care, like Rush, will
somehow be squeezed out.
What is interesting about this story is that
Rush's choice is to go to one of the most
famously successful examples of socialized
healthcare in the world. I know, because
this is my business: my company takes people
abroad for health care. About half of our
patients are uninsured and find themselves
utterly priced out of the US market. But
their reasons for being uninsured have
nothing to do with the "bought me an iPod
and a grill of gold teeth and the rest of
America should pay for my Cheetohs-n-Video
Games lifestyle" trope that seems to pervade
any discussion of the state of American
health insurance today. They are uninsured
because after years of paying in, they were
shut out by insurers *legally* refusing to
cover their illnesses and accidents.
My husband is one of these people. A
herniated disc from a skiing accident led to
surgery, with an estimate of $3,000. But
that turned out to be the *surgeon fee* only
- the hospital fee, which did not include an
overnight stay, was..drumroll....$25,000.
The surgery was not successful; the surgeon
nicked the protective sheath around the
spinal column nerves, creating a spinal
fluid leak that was visible - fluid
collected in a large pouch at the base of
his spine - not to mention agonizing. What's
more fun than a cup's worth of spinal fluid
shooting up your spine and slamming into the
base of your brain every time you sit down
and stand up? Turns out, everything is more
fun than that, while few things are scarier
or more painful.
Husband went back to have the leak repaired,
and the surgeon failed again. And again. But
we were insured, and unworried. Until the
day we weren't insured, because the surgical
nick was determined to be a 'pre-existing
condition' (figure that out now; go ahead,
I’ll wait). Our insurance was dropped and we
were left holding the $265,000 bag.
We were now defined as 'uninsured', a word
that does not really connote our history of
responsibility in our own health care or
that fact that our status is the simple
result of being screwed by a for-profit
system in which it is perfectly legal to
drop members who don't fit the profitability
profile. Not only that, we're now
uninsurable. Who would touch us?
I said half of our patients are uninsured
-what about the other half, who are like
Rush, insured and able to afford their
health care out of their own pocket, like
any responsible American should? Well, turns
out lots of smart people don't cotton well
to the idea of paying more for good American
health care when they can pay a lot less for
equally good health care in Mexico, Costa
Rica, India, and Thailand.
My business receives more than 800 inquiries
a month - coronary bypass, hip replacement
and resurfacing, treatment of Lyme disease,
oncology surgery, kidney transplant, you
name it. We take patients to the best and
most *affordable* health care in the world.
Obama's proposals did not ruin US
healthcare. Our healthcare system started on
its long journey to the present state under
the Nixon administration. Today we find that
the best of US healthcare is not affordable
to the great majority of Americans, not in
spite of the health insurance system but
because of it.
It's great that people can go abroad for
quality, affordable healthcare. But there is
a cost - there is always a cost. Countries
welcoming the largest numbers of medical
travelers (in order: Mexico, Thailand,
India, Costa Rica, Singapore) have not
magically solved the conundrum of unfettered
capitalism applied to a basic human need
like health care. The health care that
foreigners seek in Mexico and Costa Rica is
generally coming from a private system, not
the public option that serves the general
population of these countries, where long
wait times for necessary treatments are
common.
Does Rush deserve better health care than a
local Costa Rican because he can afford it?
Should the economic prowess of foreigners be
permitted to change the health care
landscape of less developed nations,
creating a wider, faster gap between the
health care haves and have nots the world
over?
I don't have the answers. I work in a
business that provides an essential need to
Americans who can't get the need met in
America. It's hard work (haven't been around
in awhile on OS), but very rewarding because
we are helping people with urgent medical
needs find a solution that does not ask them
to exchange essential health care for
economic well being. It might seem like a
magic solution to Rush, but it is not. The
costs are being counted even now. Costa
Rica, like all countries hosting medical
tourists, have been considering the long
term effects of a health care system that
disenfranchises the unwealthy as deservingly
unhealthy. I like the way the health
minister of Costa Rica describes this
process:
“The strengths of our health system (is)
that it is universal, that it’s based on the
idea of solidarity and that it’s fair,” says
Dr. Ana Morice, vice health minister in
Costa Rica. “What we need to improve is
access to health services. Many times
someone requests an appointment and doesn’t
receive it until a year later. In that area,
we have much to improve.”
Thanks for reading, and sorry to let down
fans of my *fictional* horror :-).
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