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202 points helsinkiandrew | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0.409s | source | bottom
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findthewords ◴[] No.44645035[source]
Preventative treatment for disease is ten, hundred, thousand times cheaper than treatment ex post facto.
replies(4): >>44645054 #>>44646406 #>>44653377 #>>44657121 #
fxtentacle ◴[] No.44645054[source]
Only if you have an excellent health insurance plan. Otherwise, preventive treatment costs you money, while curative treatment is paid for you.

Sounds like a misguided incentive ...

replies(3): >>44645175 #>>44645536 #>>44646096 #
1. DarmokJalad1701 ◴[] No.44645536[source]
My insurance covers annual bloodwork/physicals as well as immunizations. I am pretty sure most health insurance policies do.
replies(2): >>44646332 #>>44648394 #
2. Aurornis ◴[] No.44646332[source]
The ACA made this standard. It’s been like this for a long time.

When we were hiring a lot of people out of college, I spent way more time than I expected teaching them about how healthcare works and how to find their own information. We found that a lot of them would build their idea about how health insurance works from years of reading Reddit posts: They thought visiting the doctor was always going to be a $1000 bill or a single accident was going to medically bankrupt them, because those are the stories they saw on Reddit. I would explain things like the free annual physical and many just wouldn’t believe me. It’s really tough to cut through the confusion out there.

replies(2): >>44647431 #>>44648256 #
3. hattmall ◴[] No.44647431[source]
But if they do anything other than extremely basic tests, like blood pressure at the "free annual physical" you will be billed, ridiculous amounts you have no way of knowing in advance.
replies(1): >>44652522 #
4. KittenInABox ◴[] No.44648256[source]
I would argue this has severe caveats. I knew a girl in college who was billed over 400$ to test for PCOS, which is one of those diseases that 1) affects just women 2) is underdiagnosed but has severe systemic effects like facial hair growth, diabetes and obesity...
5. rsync ◴[] No.44648394[source]
An important nit I need to pick…

These are items you receive along with your insurance.

They are not insurable events and they are not “covered” like an insurable event.

Predictable, regularly occurring events cannot be covered by insurance by definition. You can’t adjust it, you can’t assemble a risk pool, etc.

We use the word “insurance” to mean “nice things that I like” but I think we’d have more enthusiasm for socialized medicine if we knew how much of “insurance” was nothing of the sort.

replies(1): >>44651226 #
6. nradov ◴[] No.44651226[source]
That's not quite correct. Many patients forgo preventive screening procedures even when they're free (to the patient). Medical insurer actuaries are aware of this and price policies accordingly.
7. jerlam ◴[] No.44652522{3}[source]
During these "free" preventative checkups, if your doctor asks if you have any other medical issues to discuss, having an answer other than "no" can change the visit from a free preventative visit into a standard non-free office visit.