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the guy who sits in the office next to mine at work came in on a Monday morning a few weeks ago at 8:00 am and said his chest hurt. all 6 of his office mates said go over to the ER (we work at a large healthcare facility with an Emergency Room that employees can use). He was reluctant to go, and he said his chest also hurt over the weekend too. His six office mates become insistent and said go over to the ER NOW!!!! He finally agreed, glanced at his watch and said, "I'll go over on my break at 10:00." About 10 minutes later he collapsed at his desk, within seconds he was surrounded by doctors and nurses (all working in the building already) an ambulance was called, took him to the ER, he was not able to be revived and by 9:00am was dead. He was in his 50s.
That is so sad. My husband worked with a man who was supposed to do something to do with follow up on his heart problems, and never did. He had just passed the FBI's physical fitness test (no small thing) and back at work with DH, he died on the track of a massive coronary, about 53 if IIRC.
I am pretty good at going to all my doctor's appointments for the year though it gets tiring, 4 for GP, 4 for rheumatologist, Dentist twice, one gyno, one mammogram..... eye doctor.... but they keep me up and running and in good health... despite my poor health.
Why? I'm not afraid of dying, though certainly not eager. After going through the death of my first husband, I wouldn't want my current husband to have to go through that. It sucks.
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My uncle who hadn't been to a doctor in years walked in happily for his *free* Medicare exam once he turned 65.
One chest x-ray and 6 months later his was dead after being put into a medically induced coma ... a result from all the drugs and procedures and mistakes they made. He was medically tortured to death. All standard of care, of course. Even all the mistakes.
Had he not gone for that fateful visit I have no doubts he'd be alive today.
Use discretion. Make smart choices.
It was probably his years of not seeing a doctor that killed him. By the time he went at 65 it was probably too late.
UGH...... my 87 yo dad has a stress test at his cardiologist this afternoon, in preparation for a hip replacement next week. Then off to the wake for my neighborhood friend who is mentioned in my OP. Between my OP and today I found out from a cousin that another cousin's husband passed away from cancer last Saturday. Can't be in two places at once, so I'm going to the friend's wake tonight, and the cousins husband's funeral Friday. He was also 50.
I stopped at a local animal shelter yesterday for some "pet therapy". Met a woman in the cat area with her right arm hanging down and a cane in her left hand. We chatted. 1.5 years ago, again, at 50, she had a stroke. Her right side is pretty much paralyzed and she just recently has been able to drive again, with a car modified to have a gas pedal on the left side.
Some folks view the medical community in the same manner as “big government”, educational institutions, you name it — not to be trusted. I agree we are all ultimately responsible for our own decisions. I get regular physicals, listen to my doctors, do my own research and then make my own decisions. Colon cancer runs in my family so, I get a colonoscopy every 3 years. Have had polyps and will likely have more removed. I refuse statins because of the side effects and, don’t believe a stroke or heart attack is likely to kill me in the next few years. But I also do not want to live into my 90s so, short of ending it myself somewhere in my 80s, I will likely reduce my check ups when I get that old. Everyone is free to do as they choose but it is sad when you see young people dealing with cancers that may have been avoided. Any thing can happen at any time so, appreciate the health you have today. It can all change in a heart beat.
KNOWLEDGE is power and what you are providing is NOT knowledge...
A "made up" friend that "delivers bonus checks for prescribing certain drugs?"
Doesn't happen.....nice try though.
I am a health care provider.....I WRITE prescriptions every day and have been for over 25 years....I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED a bonus check for writing for a certain medication....that is just laughable...
They must be just saving mine up
The idea that an "insurance company" would do anything to incentivize physicians this way shows you have no idea what you are talking about...
Insurance companies exist to try NOT to pay out money...certainly aren't encouraging more expensive medications.
Insurance make my life and all health care providers lives miserable....more often than not I can't get the medication for my patients that COULD help them because insurance DENIES it, along with tests, procedures etc.
I spend a large portion of every day on the phone with insurance companies trying to get over rides, peer to peer evaluations etc to get the NEEDED tests and medications for patients...
Insurance companies PAYING us....that is beyond laughable....
It's been many decades (calculate my age from) since I worked processing insurance claims , and also for a Big Pharm, but here goes. Generally, insurance would not pay for any kind of treatment unless the patient had something wrong with them. "Wellness" testing and procedures solely based age? No.
Then you get into "quality of life" procedures. The general rule was is this patient going to DIE unless they have this procedure? No? Hip/knee replacements would be in this category. An argument could be made that a 40 year old needed this in order to work and earn a living, but certainly not for a retired OLD person. NEED had to be proved for quality of life procedures.
Prevention testing has not been around for very long. This is driving up the costs of insurance and is not free. For every person you find who has something wrong with them, how many others have nothing wrong? Their tests still have to be PAID FOR. Maybe insurance needs to just say NO to all this. I am sure you would not like that, right? If patients stopped going to you for these tests, you won't lose money?
It was probably his years of not seeing a doctor that killed him. By the time he went at 65 it was probably too late.
Nope. He walked in fully functioning, living his life, moving about. He was retired and active. Had 3, children, 7 grandkids.
One chest x-ray and all the subsequent *care* he got after that chest x-ray killed him. 6 months after that x-ray he was dead. He spent about 4 months of that in the hospital, after surgery. They put him in a medically induced coma because of complications from the *treatments* he received.
This from a man who drove himself to the doctor and walked himself in, feeling NO ill health effects. Why? Because the visit was FREE!!! FREE HEALTHCARE!!!!!!!! Killed him.
The *treatment* killed him. I know this is very hard to hear for those who treat medicine as gods.
It's been many decades (calculate my age from) since I worked processing insurance claims , and also for a Big Pharm, but here goes. Generally, insurance would not pay for any kind of treatment unless the patient had something wrong with them. "Wellness" testing and procedures solely based age? No.
Then you get into "quality of life" procedures. The general rule was is this patient going to DIE unless they have this procedure? No? Hip/knee replacements would be in this category. An argument could be made that a 40 year old needed this in order to work and earn a living, but certainly not for a retired OLD person. NEED had to be proved for quality of life procedures.
Prevention testing has not been around for very long. This is driving up the costs of insurance and is not free. For every person you find who has something wrong with them, how many others have nothing wrong? Their tests still have to be PAID FOR. Maybe insurance needs to just say NO to all this. I am sure you would not like that, right? If patients stopped going to you for these tests, you won't lose money?
The purpose of prevention testing is to find something wrong.
There is NO wellness care. That is, you can't go to the doctor and say: How can I be healthier? What can I do to PREVENT any illness? That is not covered by insurance.
Insurance only pays if they find something wrong. Which is sick care, not healthy care. There is a difference and 99% of the people don't understand the difference. They think testing = care. It's not. A test will get you on drugs. It doesn't make your body healthy and get RID of the problem.
Good thing he had his check up and best wishes for a good report.
I just did the at home screening and they called and said all is well. I have a friend who did the at home screening and all is not well. Now he has to go for the real thing. But it's always better to get tested and know for sure if you are dealing with something.
I'm in the same boat as your friend, will be having to go through the "real deal" in a few weeks.
Interesting, in the current guidelines for colon cancer screening in individuals at "average risk" ( as they call it) for this disease, the US Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that adults be screened using 1) fecal occult blood testing, 2) sigmoidoscopy, OR 3) colonoscopy every 10 yrs beginning at age 50. I always thought that what was recommended was a colonoscopy every 10 yrs, and apparently insurance companies/Medicare will pay for a colonoscopy as a screening test, but I'm happy to see that apparently a fecal occult blood test will suffice for that screening in people at average risk, and a negative result will make a colonoscopy unnecessary, at least for cancer screening. So at least they aren't pushing colonoscopies on everyone from age 50 on up.
Also found that they do NOT recommend cancer screening colonoscopies for people over age 75 at average risk for colon cancer.
It's been many decades (calculate my age from) since I worked processing insurance claims , and also for a Big Pharm, but here goes. Generally, insurance would not pay for any kind of treatment unless the patient had something wrong with them. "Wellness" testing and procedures solely based age? No.
Prevention testing has not been around for very long. This is driving up the costs of insurance and is not free. For every person you find who has something wrong with them, how many others have nothing wrong? Their tests still have to be PAID FOR. Maybe insurance needs to just say NO to all this. I am sure you would not like that, right? If patients stopped going to you for these tests, you won't lose money?
The idea behind preventative medicine/testing is to save money over the long haul by detection of disease in its early stages, before it's spread and done damage to the patient in whom the disease has been discovered. While you're right in that testing is not free, it's still a lot cheaper than treating a disease that has already spread. Compare, for instance, the cost of a colonoscopy, even with pathology to examine removed polyps, to that of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy for colon cancer. Not to mention the lives saved, preservation of quality of life in those in whom the cancer ( or other conditions which are screened for) has been found.
Screening recommendations are not just made based on age, they're also made based on the risks a specific group of people have to getting the disease or condition for which the screening is done. The recommendations also take into account the risk of harm in the screening methods. Links to the USPSTF recommendations for colon cancer screening provide examples:
The purpose of prevention testing is to find something wrong.
There is NO wellness care. That is, you can't go to the doctor and say: How can I be healthier? What can I do to PREVENT any illness? That is not covered by insurance.
Insurance only pays if they find something wrong. Which is sick care, not healthy care. There is a difference and 99% of the people don't understand the difference. They think testing = care. It's not. A test will get you on drugs. It doesn't make your body healthy and get RID of the problem.
So...you have all the time in the world to go online AFTER a doctor's visit to confirm/verify/check to see if what they said was valid for you....but you have no time at all to go online and find out how to be healthier? I suppose if you want insurance to pay for that you can shop around and try to find one.
If EVERY time my doctor did a test and I ended up on drugs or having an expensive procedure I would be as suspicious as you...but that has not been my experience at all.
If a doctor seems too much in that direction I'd have no problem finding one who is more in line with my thinking in terms of "degree of active intervention". Some people WANT to act at the first sign of any issue and others would rather wait a bit if the situation isn't an urgent one and see what happens. Doctors hopefully can advise you but then you decide what to actually do. It is a partnership - not some adversarial relationship!
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but they keep me up and running and in good health... despite my poor health. 
