RUSH: Stacy somewhere in Georgia. We last heard from Stacy when she called from underneath a tree somewhere, she didn’t want to be any more specific than that. She’s in the insurance business and we welcome her back. How are you?
CALLER: Well, hi, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Very well thanks.
CALLER: Well, listen, before I tell you how my little company is enduring the House bill, it seems to me when the Gitmo five get up to New York City, the judge is going to ban cameras from the court, so only the newspapers will be allowed in, it seems to me that Holder is announcing the newspaper bailout plan.
RUSH: I thought I heard Holder say — (laughing) I thought I heard Holder say that there were going to be cameras in there.
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.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: What kind of facilities has your insurance company set up?
CALLER: Well, the insurance company is hoping to set up hospital surgical centers in Costa Rica.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Your insurance company is going to build hospitals?
CALLER: Well, no, they’re partnering with people who do that —
RUSH: All right. So your insurance company —
CALLER: — who build these facilities.
RUSH: — in Costa Rica, and you’re going to pay 100% of all medical charges associated with heart valve replacement, bypass surgeries, knee replacements, hip replacements, spinal fusion if you travel to Costa Rica?
CALLER: Yep. And we’ve even got a travel agency who helps arrange the travel arrangements for coming back after you had those kind of procedures.
RUSH: So your company is insuring itself against the House health care bill and Obamacare by setting up essentially offshore medical centers?
CALLER: We most certainly are.
RUSH: How do you make money here if you’re going to pay 100% of all of these procedures’ costs?
CALLER: You know, I don’t know the details to that. I just learned about it this week so I can’t tell you that, but I do know the money is going to come in from investments and other ways insurance companies make money, we don’t just gather our premiums and put them in a back account.
RUSH: Yes, I understand that. So this is your way of opting out of Obamacare and not being put out of business. So if I happen to want a knee replacement or need one, all I gotta do is contact you, find a way to get myself to Costa Rica via your travel agency, and everything is picked up a hundred percent based on whatever my policy with you costs?
CALLER: Exactly. There’s no deductible, no coinsurance, no copay. So they’re going to decapitate —
RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a second, now, you can’t just gloss over this stuff, Stacy. You’re going to have to explain how this can be done. No deductible, no copay, 100% — you know, I have great empathy. That’s why I’m a great host, and I can tell you many in the audience are not buying this.
CALLER: Well, I can e-mail you a link to our sub-department that’s handling these arrangements and you can post it. It’s out there. It’s on the Web.
RUSH: No, no. They believe what you’re saying. They don’t believe that there’s no deductible, that there’s no copay, 100% covered. The only thing they don’t know is what does this cost ’em.
CALLER: Well, it’s going to be your standard policy. I mean it’s not going to be necessarily any cheaper, but what it will be is your procedure when you need it without standing in line. That’s what it’s going to be.
RUSH: And it will still be cheaper than the House bill and you’ll be guaranteed to get treated.
CALLER: Absolutely. So, you know, they can decapitate the doctors all they want. And, incidentally, the House bill, the bundling only applies to hospitals. Specialists are also going to be decapitated. It’s going to be done in a geographic region or something to that effect. But the decapitation is in there —
RUSH: I gotta jump in here again. For those of you in Rio Linda, we’re not actually talking about the guillotine here.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Well, with this administration you never know what some people would believe.
CALLER: Well, this is true. I mean I wouldn’t have believed that Holder is going to bail out newspapers by bringing terrorists into New York City to have show trials.
RUSH: Why did you choose Costa Rica?
CALLER: I have no idea why they did that. You know, I’m a business analyst. I don’t work in the marketing and all of that. I work on computer systems. But I’ll be happy to e-mail you the benefit booklet if you will take off all identification information, you know, blank it out and I’ll be happy to e-mail it to you and you can post it. It’s right there. Now, you’ll still have to have your physical therapy, all that stateside. But for these high dollar procedures, it is less than half the cost to do it in Costa Rica.
RUSH: Ah. Okay, there’s the answer I was looking for: Less than half the cost than under the House bill.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Now, does that mean Costa Rican doctors and nurses or are you also going to hire American doctors who want to opt out and not get decapitated in Medicare and relocate ’em to Costa Rica?
CALLER: I have a feeling that it won’t take a lot to lure highly trained, highly specialized physicians to a sunny tropical island to be paid the amount that they’re worth to do what they love to do.
RUSH: It’s actually not an island but it is tropical, and it is an up-and-coming vacation destination for the truly enlightened.
CALLER: And you know we’ve been doing this with dental for a number of years. You can have full dental work done at a third of the cost there so a lot of people have been doing that, but this is the first I’ve seen of these very precise, very high-tech procedures that they’re going to offer. And you know how we’re going to make our killing, Rush? Even if it’s only $50 per person that we make as a net profit, there are going to be so many people trying to get out of the government plan and get what they need done and get it now that they’ll be beating our doors down.
RUSH: Yeah. I can see that. I’m just worried here that now that you’ve made this public, you know the bill still hasn’t been amended. (laughing)
CALLER: But, you know, hey, Harry Reid —
RUSH: I mean don’t be surprised if they put a provision: ‘You may not leave the country for health care services.’
CALLER: Well, but Harry Reid’s already got it on the Senate schedule. He can’t change it that much or they’ll never get it through this year. So go ahead, guys, feel free. But you know what I love, Rush, all of us little peons here just doing our thing are so much smarter than those guys up there. They think they’ve got us between a rock and a hard place. Ha. You watch us.
RUSH: That is a great thing about entrepreneurism. People always find a way around these people and the obstacles they put in the way. It’s just a shame that has to happen, but yours is a great illustration of how that happens.
CALLER: Oh, you know, we make it work. So I hope you have a fabulous Friday and I’m so glad your cochlear implant got fixed.
RUSH: Well, thanks very much. (laughing) You’re just a pistol.
CALLER: Well, I try.
RUSH: It’s on the fritz here again. I’m having to slap the thing silly when it starts going out on me.
CALLER: Hey, you better get that off the web cam. The next thing you know Marco will have it on his website as you’re a masochist or something.
RUSH: (laughing) You know how they are.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, absolutely. All right, look, I appreciate it, Stacy. Stay in touch. Oh. Stay on hold. We have a super-secret e-mail address.
CALLER: Oh!
RUSH: I do want to see this pamphlet.
CALLER: Okay, sure!
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I’ll have it to you tonight.
RUSH: Just hold on, don’t hang up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: E-mails are pouring in to me, folks, from website subscribers who know all about Costa Rica. We’re all Costa Ricans now! It’s fine and dandy, except the Canadians have to leave, too, and they come here. But I’m learning all kinds of things. There are now vacation surgical tours. You need a minor surgery, you schedule it to a vacation spot. The costs are much less, you go for two weeks, you get your recoup time, you come back, bammo! Just a couple sample e-mails here. ‘Dear Rush…’ This is from Blake Hibbard. ‘Costa Rica health care costs are about a quarter of what they are here. Good private doctors. I go there a lot. There are always women on the planes coming home who have had plastic surgery. ‘Ten grand there buys you the whole deal: Face, boobs, lipo, et cetera.’ Lipo! The whole deal, ten grand.
Another one: ‘Costa Rica has the highest percentage of US trained doctors in Latin America. Relocation of doctors is possible, but you need to be board certified in Costa Rica and join the national College of Medicine. It takes time but you can get highly competent doctors and state-of-the-art private hospitals for a fraction of the cost of the USA,’ Benicio Lines, Coral Gables, Florida. There are thousands of them that have poured in here. And I had no idea, because I don’t go to the doctor anyway, wherever he is. See what you learn on this program? Folks, I’m going to tell you something. When the host learns something, it’s big, ’cause I know most everything that’s important to know — and I’ve learned something I didn’t know today. That’s a grand-slam, home run of a show.