An unprecedented window into how diseases take hold years before symptoms appear

Preventative treatment for disease is ten, hundred, thousand times cheaper than treatment ex post facto.

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 ...

So exercise, eating healthy, fasting, brushing/flossing teeth, consistent sleep schedule, daily sun exposure, good relationships, and stress management all depend on a health insurance plan?

You certainly need to "pay" for those yourself, insurance or not (I guess that's probably your point). Going for a run doesn't go on any billing schedule or contribute to GDP, it's all self-funded from your own personal resources of time and energy.

We pay either way. Pay to stay healthy or pay to stop being sick.

You only get so many chances to be sick before you can't come back from one, or it alters your life so severely you'd wish you were dead anyways.

I'll opt for paying to stay healthy.

Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness

>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

>Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

>But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

What the heck does the price of boots have to do with any of this? All footwear eventually wears out, and if you're talking about athletic shoes the more expensive ones are often less durable (they can improve performance a little).

Sheesh, it's an analogy. If you can spend afford to spend a little more money now (on preventative care) it can help being ruined later.

Fpr example, paying for a diabetic's insulin/blood sugar testing vs. amputating a limb, with the bonus of a working individual now likely ending up on disability

That's a bad analogy and poor example. Preventing type-2 diabetes (the vast majority of cases) is literally free.

Anything to miss the point, eh?

The point being, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" - if you can afford it

You're really missing the point. Anyone can afford the most effective types of prevention.

This assertion is extremely privileged and I heartily disagree with it

Even if we're just going to say "diet and exercise" it is a privilege to not live in a food desert and have sidewalks. If we are to mention the free yearly physical it's a privilege to have a doctor nearby and be able to get the time off work

So no, I don't think I am the one missing the point

I would assert that nearly anyone can find a place to walk, or climb stairs, even if it's while they eat or work. Healthy food may be harder to come by for some, either because of expense or lack of availability. But again, fasting is a great protection against so many modern eating related problems, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The point is that nearly everyone can improve their preventative standing, even the less fortunate.