Additional motivation:
CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]
LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.
Any chance they can move up implementation of most reforms to next year?
Then again, what will happen when Rush realizes that Costa Rica has universal health care?
A primary contributor to Costa Rica’s success has been its focus on the well being of its people. For Costa Rica, health and education are priorities for the success of their nation. The World Bank highlights this priority:
“The Government of Costa Rica sees the health sector as an essential determinant of the country’s economic and social development, giving it a priority that is manifested in sustained high levels of spending and active policy attention at the highest levels.”
The attention to health has brought this middle-wealth country’s health indicators in line with those of OECD countries. In 2001 the average life expectancy at birth in Costa Rica was 76.6 years. In 2000, 97% of births were attended by skilled professionals, 89% of the pregnant women were given prenatal care, and 93% of children under 1 had health insurance. From 1990 to 2000 life expectancy increased by 0.8 years, the fertility rate dropped, and the population grew due to an influx of Nicaraguan immigrants. In 2000 there were 16 physicians and 3.2 nurses per 10,000 population. In 1999 there were 12,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, giving an adult prevalence rate of 0.54%. However, Costa is the only Central American country to provide antiretroviral treatment to all patients through its social security system. The leading causes of death were cardiovascular disease and neoplasms, which is comparable to many OECD countries. Spending on health care has increased steadily over recent years, and in 2000 it composed 9% of the national GDP.
These outcomes are the result of one of the world’s most successful “universal” health care systems. “Universality” in the Costa Rican system means that 100% of the population is given equal comprehensive public health insurance with equal access to services.
Given Costa Rica's successful "cradle to grave" universal health care system is not just for Costa Ricans, but even for foreigners in the country, I'd like to suggest Rush try Somalia instead. I'm pretty sure Somalia doesn't suffer from the evils of socialized medicine.