Archive for March 25th, 2010
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Semana Santa is a special time for many, when families get together to enjoy the season’s special dishes. But, it is also a time for supermarkets to take advantage.
A study by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC) reveals that prices on edible products can vary more than 300% for food products special to Semana Santa consumers.
The MEIC reveals that prices of similar products varied 311%, while prices of identical products varied 100%. In some cases, the variance was found between stores of the same chain.
In general the MEIC reports that prices for Semana Santa have been increased an average of 8.67%.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Deforestation slowed in the past decade, in the first sign that global conservation efforts are bearing fruit, but an area the size of Costa Rica is still being destroyed each year, the United Nations said on Thursday. A report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that about 32 million acres of forest a year were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes in the past decade, down from more than 39 million a year in the previous 10 years. The net loss of forest area slowed to about 13 million acres a year from 2000 to 2010, down from more than 20 million a year in the 1990s thanks largely to ambitious tree-planting programs in Asia. Efforts by major offenders like Indonesia and Brazil to reduce deforestation also helped reverse the trend.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
With the health care industry on its toes, many are looking at Costa Rica as a model of perfection. Sure people in the country have to pay for their own health care, but the system may be working much simpler than the US is. After all, Costa Rica may have something to do with the fact that Costa Rica is an excellent place for medical tourism. They offer low-cost medical procedures to foreigners where it costs much less for the foreigner to seek medical treatment there, than pay the hefty fees in their own country. “People travel to Costa Rica (and) receive the same quality of medical services for a fraction of the cost,” said Jorge Cortés, president of the Council for International Promotion of Costa Rica Medicine and medical director of Hospital. Cortés has a point. With a system that works, it’s hard to debate any other problems.
Costa Rica is the country that was brought up by Republican talk show host Rush Limbaugh recently. He is decrying the current US health care initiative saying that if it is passed he will ‘move to Costa Rica’. Interestingly enough the conservative would them be surrounded by many other issues to deal with. Not only is health care vastly different, but so is the casino industry. In fact, in Coast Rica it is a major hot spot for online gambling, and some even consider it to be the online gambling capital of the world. Costa Rica seems like a strange choice for a country that Rush Limbaugh would like to live in. The main reason is that Costa Rica has a government-run health-care system where all residents pay the government for their health-care needs. Costa Rica offers low cost medical procedures and legal online gambling, while the US continues to struggle with health-care and online gambling. Many would argue that the US is still in the middle of its growing pains and that makes it a time for learning and growth but a lot of Americans, Limbaugh included apparently, are growing impatient with progress. They want change sooner than later and are looking at countries like Costa Rica where things seem to be sorted out much better.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
The cost of electricity is going up 10% with the approval of the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) following an increase in rates by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE).
ICE had requested a 30% increase.
What 10% means to an average family is an increase of ¢1.800 on their monthly bill for an average consumption of 250 KWh.
The state utility said it needed the increase to finance investment, expansion of works that includes construction of hydroelectric plants.
The Aresep did not approve the increase requested by ICE, saying that ICE has sufficient funds to carry out the works.
In addition, ICE claimed costs in repairing the Cariblanco generating plant damaged last year by the Cinchona earthquake. However, the Aresep pointed out that ICE will be receiving ¢10 billion colones from the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) – state insurer – on the insurance policy carried by ICE.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
The exchange rate posted by the Banco Central (Central Bank) this Thursday morning is ¢518.51 colones for each US dollar for the buy and ¢528.78 for the sell, a drop of ¢12.36 and ¢12.52, respectively, from Monday’s opening.
This from a high of ¢585.90 (buy) and ¢595.37 (sell) of September 17, 2009.
According to the experts, the obligation to pay taxes by entrepreneurs floods the local banks with dollars so it gets cheaper.
What this means in real terms is that for those earning in dollars, their purchase power has dropped. Also, savings in dollars have lost their value against the colon.
For many foreigners living off their pension from their home country and paid in dollars, us$1.500 translated into an income of ¢878.000 colones in September, but only ¢777.765 colones today, a difference of ¢100.000 colones, as the income needs to be converted into colones to make purchases of good, rent (unless paid in dollars) and other consumable goods.
Landlords who collect rent in dollars and businesses, like travel and tourism companies, whose main income is in dollars are also affected by the extreme variance in the exchange rate.
A look at the exchange rates posted by the different banks shows Citibank with the lowest buy rate at ¢516 and Banco General with the lowest sell at ¢525. All the other banks are within the range.
At other non-bank financial institutions, like the Casa de Cambio Global Exchange, is buying dollars at ¢462.74 colones.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
The state hospital, the Calderón Guardia, has had to turn away surgeries and interning patients since Monday due to problems in its Emergency services unit, that has been oversaturated with more than double the number of patients as usual.
On Monday the emergency room at the hospital was flooded with at least 150 people, a unit with a capacity of only 70, according to Luis Paulino Hernández, director of the hospital.
The director explained that surgeries for hernias, tonsils and other similar surgeries had to be suspended, though cancer and emergency surgeries took place.
Hernández added that at least 20 people with emergencies had to be sent to the Hospital México
The director assured that the situation at the hospital should be back to normal by today.
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Long known as a gorgeous and exciting travel destination, a surprising fact is that Costa Rica plastic surgery, and other medical procedures performed here, are the draw for 14% of all visitors. Over 90% of these visitors are from North America, due to its proximity and the ease of traveling to Costa Rica.
So the obvious question:
Why is Costa Rica plastic surgery is drawing so many people?
The most obvious answer would be cost. Costa Rica plastic surgery costs as much 50-70% less than it would in the United States, Canada, or Western Europe. This is the case because Costa Rica is still a third world country in the sense of per-capita GDP, despite being much more developed than its neighboring countries. What this means is that wages are lower for doctors, nurses, and other health care practitioners, and the cost of living is much lower here. Moreover, government subsidized health-care helps keep the cost of private health-care low.
Perhaps most relevant to Americans is the relative lack of malpractice suits. As a result of being the most litigious country on the planet, health-care costs have skyrocketed in the US to compensate for malpractice insurance. Malpractice suits in Costa Rica are rare, and those that succeed usually just cover medical expenses.
The idea of not having recourse in the event of malpractice is something that scares many people who have thought about having cosmetic surgery in Costa Rice. However, if you are looking at standards of safety in the top ranked private institutions of Costa Rica you would see that their success records are on par with, if not better than, the majority of hospitals in the US.
If quality is your concern, take heart: there are numerous well-qualified and internationally certified surgeons and doctors in the Costa Rica plastic surgery industry. At the best hospitals and clinics you will find many surgeons who have been trained in the US, Canada, and Europe. The top-flight CIMA Hospital is associated with the prestigious Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The Clinica Biblica hospital is accredited by the JCI, the international branch of the United States’ most highly regarded and stringent health-care accreditation agency. With the quality of health-care here, and the success rate of procedures, your risk is minimal and no greater than in the US, all at a fraction of the price.
What kind of procedures does Costa Rica plastic surgery offer?
Pretty much anything you can get done in the States, you can have done in Costa Rica. Facelifts, eyelid surgery, liposuction, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, tummy tucks, butt implants, and more are all possible. You can even get LAPBAND surgery. As an example of the prices, you can have breast augmentation for around $2,800-3,500. Breast augmentation in the States would cost between $7,000-8,000 on average. The savings really add up if you have multiple procedures, as is common among many patients.
What’s more, there are medical tourism agencies that offer package deals for patients’ procedures with transportation to and from the airport as well as accommodations included. A unique spawn of the Costa Rica cosmetic surgery industry is the Recovery Retreat, a type of luxury accommodation that offers on-site nursing care for those recovering from their procedures.
With airfare between $300-600, Costa Rica plastic surgery is an excellent way to combine a vacation with affordable, high-quality cosmetic surgery. A great idea is to go to Costa Rica for a week of touring and having fun, then having your procedure and spending a week at a private, luxurious recovery resort. If you ever considered plastic surgery, Costa Rica offers an exceptional alternative to having it done in your home country and offers you an opportunity to participate in the growing phenomenon of medical tourism.
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