American Expat Experiences – Costa Rica Socialized Medical Care Equal to US For Less Cost
A lot of negative buzz in the U.S. hisses socialized medicine, partly because of the delays and restrictions associated with government run health care in many countries.
That’s not what I found in Costa Rica, at all, said retiree Gene Warneke from his home near Grecia, a sky-top villa overlooking Costa Rica’s lush Central Valley. He now walks with a prosthetic leg in the aftermath of an amputation brought on by a clotting disorder.
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What is Social Medicine
It is possible to argue that all medicine by its very nature is social. The way we define diseases and health, the methods we use for diagnosis and treatment, how we finance health care, all these cannot help but reflect the social environment in which medicine operates. Social medicine, however, looks at these interactions in a systematic way and seeks to understand how health, disease and social conditions are interrelated. This type of study began in earnest in the early 1800′s. It was the time of the Industrial Revolution and it was impossible to ignore the extent to which the factory system impoverished the workers, thus creating poverty and disease.
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