Rush Limbaugh Will Move to Costa Rica If U.S. Health Care Reform Passes

Good for him!!! Here's what he'll get for health care: government-run universal everything...which is considered among the best in the world.

Do they have Google at the EIB Network?

The Costa Rican healthcare system is rated very highly on an international level, and the country’s citizens enjoy the health and life expectancy equal to that of more developed nations. These accolades come courtesy of strong, universal health insurance and excellent public and private hospitals.

Costa Rica’s public health insurance system, commonly known as the Caja, is available country-wide to all citizens and legal residents. There are ten major public hospitals – four in San Jose, including the Children’s Hospital – affiliated with the Caja. For non-emergencies and everyday medical care, small clinics, known as EBAIS (pronounced ay-vy-ice), are located in almost every community.

The cost to affiliate with CCSS is approximately 10 to 11.5% of your income; alternatively, residents may become members via ARCR, which provides a streamlined and simple joining process. Please note that for those under age 55, Caja payments include a mandatory pension payment, which will be disbursed beginning at age 65.

As of 2009, private insurance is available through INS, the government-owned insurance monopoly. Most plans cover dental work, optometry, and cosmetic surgery in the case of an accident, and neither pre-existing conditions nor annual check-ups are included. Prescription drugs, certain medical exams, sick visits and hospitalization are covered at 70% cost, and surgeon and aesthetician costs are covered at full cost. Currently, private medical insurance costs about $50-$100/month per person, depending on age, gender and other factors.

In addition to INS insurance, expats may also purchase international health care insurance from abroad, which will cover most private hospital costs. Be aware that these plans often cost more than their INS equivalents.

The Busy Season

I guess I have to admit to the fact that those of us who are blessed with still having jobs must now work four times as much to keep them.

That's one reason why my posting has once again ground to a halt. Maybe the other reason is that I just don't want to jinx health care reform via reconciliation by jumping up and down here too much. Besides, it makes the change fall out of my pockets.

Yeah, there's no public option...yet. But there is regulation. We just had nine years of no regulation. This fairy tale known as the "free market" has all but destroyed our democracy.

Corporations are still planting themselves offshore to avoid paying taxes (even though they still got huge tax cuts under Bush). And even if they're forced to pay taxes, the lack of regulation will allow them to raise prices on us. It's a lousy truth, and libertarians get their undershorts soaked when you talk about it, but regulations are necessary. Sorry, kids. Go cry somewhere else. They had their shot at deregulation and it's killing all of us.

"Fair Market" sucks, plain and simple. The cracking down of insurance costs, the ending of pre-existing conditions clauses, the end of randomly revoking insurance - these are all LONG overdue.

We can get to a public option eventually. Right now, the other obscenities the "free market" has allowed have to be dealt with. To use a phrase which the GOP loves to use, let's ram this thing through already.

Good and hard. Right up the obstructionists' filibusters. It's about damned time.

The Health Care Summit

Watch it live here.

Last Night's One-Two Punch

If you missed it last night, MSNBC gave its viewers a double stunner from Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. First, Olbermann revealed his father might be finally losing his battle with the infections from his myriad illnesses - and acknowledged families go through the same pain every day with no safety net. It provided the springboard for this Special Comment.

Rachel then immediately took the GOP's argument against reconciliation (and their false accusations of Democrats invoking "the nuclear option") and threw it right back into their front yard. Brilliantly.

It's On! White House Goes All In on Health Care

Oh, baby. Greg Sargent:

The game of chicken commenceth — right now.

In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation.

The assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders, ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring Republicans to try to block reform.

“The President expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on the call.

Pfeiffer said no decision had been made how to proceed, pending the outcome of the summit. But he added that Obama’s proposal is designed to have “maximum flexibility to ensure that we can get an up or down vote if the opposition decides to take the extraordinary step of filibustering health reform.”

Translation: If the GOP doesn’t cooperate with us in any meaningful sense, we’re moving forward on our own.

Krugman: Reconciliation Now

He cites California's downward spiral vis a vis Anthem Blue Cross who will raise their rates as much as 39%. He calls for reconciliation and (gasp!) regulation. Look, kids...no regulation got us in this hellhole. Something has to happen.

What would work? By all means, let’s ban discrimination on the basis of medical history — but we also have to keep healthy people in the risk pool, which means requiring that people purchase insurance. This, in turn, requires substantial aid to lower-income Americans so that they can afford coverage.

And if you put all of that together, you end up with something very much like the health reform bills that have already passed both the House and the Senate.

What about claims that these bills would force Americans into the clutches of greedy insurance companies? Well, the main answer is stronger regulation; but it would also be a very good idea, politically as well as substantively, for the Senate to use reconciliation to put the public option back into its bill.

But the main point is this: California’s death spiral is a reminder that our health care system is unraveling, and that inaction isn’t an option. Congress and the president need to make reform happen — now.

Schumer's In

I was thinking this was going to be a longshot, and for all intents and purposes it might still be.

But the public option and reconciliation movement in the senate has just landed a big fish.

Senator Chuck Schumer has just signed the letter calling on Harry Reid to hold a reconciliation vote on the public option.

Schumer just fired off an email to supporters in which he announced that he’s added his name to the letter, which was initially spearheaded by Senator Michael Bennet and three other Senators. He wrote:

I just added my name to their effort to pass a public option through the reconciliation process, and I wanted you to be the first to know.

This is far from a done deal, but it’s an opportunity to break through the obstructionism Republicans have pushed for the past year.

That brings the total number of Senators calling for this vote to 17. But Schumer’s signature is arguably far more important than many of the others.

That’s because Schumer has now become the first member of the Dem Senate leadership to join this effort. As the former head of the DSCC he played a major role in engineering the Dem takeover of the Senate.

This has gained traction over the last couple of days, and it just might be in no small part caused by the permission the Dems are getting from both the media and public. Look, poll after poll shows at least 3/4 of the country wants the public option. This is a no-brainer.

As much as no-brainers are beyond Democrats' line of cognizance, they're finally catching on. The rest of you - fall in line. If your rep is on board, let them know they done good. Reward them with an email pat on the back.

Limbaugh Put His Life in Union Workers' Hands

How 'bout that. They all did their job to a "T" and none of them had horns and pitchforks.

What Limbaugh didn't realize, SEIU's blog points out, is that the Hawaiian health care system is one of America's most progressive. So progressive, in fact, that Hawaii has been exempted from some of the terms of the Senate health care bill because the current system's requirements go above and beyond the ones federal legislation would mandate.

Furthermore, Limbaugh's saviors at the Queen's Medical Center are represented by the Hawaii Nurse's Associations, which, according to SEIU, offers benefits and protections similar to those of a labor union. The anti-reform talk show host is working to deny more people the same type of "confidence-inspiring" medical attention that made him "thankful to be an American."

Facepalm

Forehead slap. Headspin. Spitting coffee on the monitor. Giving up on trying to educate idiots.

Prepare yourself for one or all of the above.

"After raising billions in new taxes, cutting about a half-trillion dollars from Medicare, and imposing stiff new penalties for people who don't buy insurance and increasing costs for those that do, 23 million people will still not even have health insurance." -Sen. Chuck Grassley

There was a solution for that, you nutsack. It was called the public option.

Waiting for It...Waiting for It...

I realize Rush made his declaration that "I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system" a little prematurely.

He hasn't gotten the bill yet.

Agh, who am I kidding? Because of that "news conference" which took no questions yesterday, he can now write off whatever isn't covered by his insurance and medical expenses as a publicity stunt.

And the ignorance of health care reform continues.

So...Does Rush Have Health Care Coverage or Does He Pay Cash?

I'm guessing he can afford both, though cash is untraceable. I also found this interesting:

Limbaugh, 58, was sitting in a chair in his ninth-floor hotel room at the Kahala when emergency crews arrived, sources said. He told medical crews that he was taking medication for a back problem, sources said.

After he played a round of golf that morning, by the way. We do wish him well, healthwise. Chest pains can be frightening. We're going to guess his diet isn't the most pristine, so maybe the boy CAN change something in his life.

I Will KEEL You

Really...when you're punk'd out by Harry Reid, NOBODY fears you.

A Fate Worse Than Death

Joe "160 Lb Sleeping Pill" Lieberman filibustering. He's threatening to do it to the health care bill with the public option.

Independent my ass.

Coming to a Fight Completely Unarmed

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute (ooo, that sounds important), went to the Hill to argue that health care reform will bankrupt even more Americans.

She wasn't counting on Al Franken.

Watch how he masterfully works his timing - and how her last gasp at trying to win the argument gets blown out of the room. MUST WATCH.

Punting on the Public Option

It's double bad news for Obama if he decides to keep playing Bipartisanman. Greg Sargent notes that his approval among Democrats has cratered and the RNC has financially benefited.

The sad thing is Obama is very much aware of how bipartisanship is akin to dragging a dead horse across the finish line so you can shoot it. The country's getting impatient for him to cross that line.

Finally...The Rock Has Come Back to the White House

Obama Comes Out With Guns Blazing

This is pretty breathtaking. Looks like trying to work with the corporate douchebags is now off the table if this morning's fireside chat is any indication.

Checking gut. Oh yeah. It's there.

The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo. They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people.

Of course, like clockwork, we’ve seen folks on cable television who know better, waving these industry-funded studies in the air. We’ve seen industry insiders –- and their apologists -– citing these studies as proof of claims that just aren’t true…Even the authors of one of these studies have now admitted publicly that the insurance companies actually asked them to do an incomplete job.

It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, “Take one of these, and call us in a decade.” Well, not this time.

(Sniff Sniff)...What IS That Smell?

Oh, yeah. Desperation. Mixed with a little completely going to the crazy side.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers Throws Insurance Companies Under the Bus

Holy crap! The beeg study put out by the insurance companies - the one that says their premiums will skyrocket if reform passes - is a stretch of the truth. That was said by THE PEOPLE WHO DID THE STUDY.

They're now saying they were asked to do a report on one sliver of the entire bill - but they turned against their client today in stating that "it doesn't take into account the totality of reform."

This is pretty breathtaking stuff. PriceaterhouseCoopers has a reputation, and they're flaming their client - who has misrepresented the study - to maintain it. Bravo. Here's their statement.

America’s Health Insurance Plans engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to prepare a report that focused on four components of the Senate Finance Committee proposal:

· Insurance market reforms and consumer protections that would raise health insurance premiums for individuals and families if the reforms are not coupled with an effective coverage requirement.
· An excise tax on employer-sponsored high value health plans.
· Cuts in payment rates in public programs that could increase cost shifting to private sector businesses and consumers.
· New taxes on health sector entities.

The analysis concluded that collectively the four provisions would raise premiums for private health insurance coverage. As the report itself acknowledges, other provisions that are part of health reform proposals were not included in the PwC analysis. The report stated on page 1:

“The reform packages under consideration have other provisions that we have not included in this analysis. We have not estimated the impact of the new subsidies on the net insurance cost to households. Also, if other provisions in health care reform are successful in lowering costs over the long term, those improvements would offset some of the impacts we have estimated.”

GOP Threatens Snowe If She Supports Health Care Bill

Yes. It's gotten that ugly on the right. They're not interested in you. This is the worst playing of politics in history.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) is risking a shot at becoming the top Republican on an influential Senate committee by backing Democratic healthcare legislation, according to senators on the panel.

A Senate Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said Republicans on the panel are threatening to vote against Snowe, who is in line for the senior GOP post that is about to come open.

Snowe, a potential swing vote on the Senate Finance Committee, could give Democrats a major boost Tuesday when that panel holds a final vote on Chairman Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) bill. She could also support the bill in the coming weeks on the Senate floor.

“A vote for healthcare would be something that would weigh on our minds when it came time to vote,” said a Republican on Commerce, who said Snowe would otherwise be assured of the ranking member post if not for the healthcare debate.

UPDATE: She's voting for it, risking GOP ire.

You Know What Must Really Suck?

I'll tell you what must really suck. It must really suck to go on FOX News to spread lies about the public option, and the FOX News host jumps all over your lying ass in mid-lie to tell you you're a liar. THAT must REALLY suck.

Shepard Smith ruined Sen. John Barrasso's life this afternoon. It's MAGNIFICENT.

Thanks for Helping Us Fight Health Reform. Now Go Screw Yourselves

Wow. This really goes beyond the pale of decency.

WellPoint health insurance company, which has encouraged its employees to lobby against health care reform, is now cutting their benefits.

The insurance giant plans to raise deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits. "Your cost per paycheck will probably increase," said a memo to Wellpoint employees that was obtained by Bloomberg News.

The company blamed the recession for the cuts. "Like many employers in today's economic environment, we are looking at all aspects of our business," including benefits, "and making adjustments to ensure we can continue to operate competitively in the future," wrote Chief Human Resources Officer Randy Brown.

WellPoint's CEO, Angela Braley, made nearly $10 million in 2008.

GOP Rep: Mental Disorders Can Be Treated in the ER

Bet you never knew that. Neither does the medical community. But Rep. Paul Broun (R of course - GA) let a constituent who was suicidal in on that fascinating bit of info.

We could make a recommendation of our own, like keeping your pie hole shut on topics you know nothing about, but since we know nothing about Rep. Paul Broun except that he's a medical retard, we'll keep our pie hole shut.

A Couple of Gems from Rachel

She's been doing spectacular work on telling "The Truth about the Lies about ACORN" all this week, which we will post in their entirety over the weekend.

Here are two other Maddow stories of note. The first is about the GOP's red-faced hands-on-their-hips outrage over Rep. Alan Grayson, which she effectively destroys in this clip.

Then there was Mike Blowers' frighteningly uncanny prediction on Sunday's Seattle Mariners game:

Gutwrenching

From the St. Petersburg (FL) Times...