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Comment by roel_v | Hacker News Reader

I always see Americans (apologies for making assumptions if you're not) throw around blood testing like it's something trivial and casually done. Here in the Netherlands, it takes a real medical indication and some pushing of a doctor to get any testing done. Alternatively, you use a private testing company that costs 200 to 400 euros for a comprehensive screening. Question to the public in various countries - how easy is it to get preventative tests done where you live, and what does it cost?

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The Dutch health care system is allergic to preventative care. It's stunningly hard to try and just get routine things checker/done. As an Australian, having lived in four different countries, I'd say the Dutch system is the odd one out here.

More preventive care -- specifically screenings -- isn't always better. Humans are piles of goo, each person is different and totally normal, healthy baseline values are frequently quite different for different people. There is no such thing as a "normal" person.

The negative effects of false positives can easily outweigh the benefits of early screenings. For example, an NHS study shows that PSA antigen testing for prostate cancer is actually net harmful. [1]

Of course this isn't a blanket statement against testing in general, I'm just cautioning you against pre-judging the Dutch system as somehow less effective on the basis of "lack of preventive care" in general based on your personal experiences. It could well be that the other systems you participated in were less effective but attempting to placate anxious humans wanting to feel like they're 'doing something.'

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/17/prostate-cancer-...

UK system is the same.

Amazing when something goes awry, not great at preventing the thing going awry though they have made some good improvements recently (starting with their website debunking bullshit claims and headlines in the press).

Italy here: just went to my doctor and said "hey, i should get a blood test since I haven't had one in a couple years"...my doctor said "yes, please do" -> got a prescription and went to the hospital. I think I paid something like 20 euros to do it at a private hospital that is affiliated with the state health program, after I added urine testing and a couple of additional tests to the bloodwork.

In India, Its pretty easy to get various preventative tests done. As for as prices, its cheap enough for engineers but non-trivial sums for a majority of the population.

As an example here's a list of all the tests, prices that a diagnostic center chain in South India provides https://appointments.aarthiscan.com/#/city/Bangalore/select-... https://aarthiscan.com/test-package/preventive-health-checku...

The test for Vitamin D is about 16EUR and comprehensive blood screening starts at 18EUR

In Spain you go to your healthcare doctor and ask, and they will usually grant you the blood test, but it depends on them. I never had any issues though.

Yep, expect for this weird COVID-19 year, were it's advised to no overload the health system, usually you would only need to see your GP and tell him/her "it's been a while since last check up" or "I'm feeling weird/tired/not sleeping well" and usually they would begin by a basic blood test.

This is not accurate : although I will not deny Dutch doctors are weary of preventive testing, it depends on your doctor.

My current doctor agrees to get my blood tested quite easily ( I don't have very serious issues ). It is not expensive either. When symptoms improved, we agreed let's test again, see where we are.

My previous doctor however, was very adverse. I left him because of this.

I think 200-400 euros once per year (hell it doesn't even need to be that often if you're young) should be acceptable on NL standard of living, here in Croatia if you get a private life insurance plan (around the same amount/year) they include some yearly tests + general checkup and cover up to 200 EUR tests in partner clinics.

"A real medical indication." This is anecdotal, but I just told my doctor (GP) my symptoms, that I am vegan and hence don't eat milk products. I was also on quitting smoking. Got a reference for blood test and smoking cessation (Zyban). I don't remember if smoking cessation was insured, but the rest all was. Going to your GP is free (via mandatory insurance) in The Netherlands. I got my vitamin D and B12 checked among other things.

Where I live, you can get just about any blood test you want or heard of done at a days notice (excepting clinically conditional time rubrics for the sake of test accuracy, ie: waiting a couple weeks+ after possible HIV exposure to get an HIV test, that kind of thing) at any one of dozens of private laboratories for extremely reasonable costs. Complete blood profiles go for a little over the equivalent of 25 dollars US and most typical tests are not far below or just above that figure. Exotic tests can get more expensive but rarely exceed a price equivalent to 200 dollars for truly unusual things like specialized checking for exotic tropical diseases.

Socialized health is also available here but with the usual pushing and prodding necessary for anything outside the most basic, routine preventative tests, and slow at that. Advanced countries with socialized healthcare offer wonderful advantages for medical catastrophes and sufferers of chronic illnesses that would be hard to privately insure against, but when it comes to preventative discretionary healthcare, my impression is that they can be awfully bureaucratic (I used to live in Canada).

If you are taking vitamin D supplementation, your physician will surely prescribe you periodic testing, at the very least if you ask for it. But since I have a private testing point just beside my office, I go there without doctor prescription; last time it cost me 17€ to get my vitamin D checked. This is in Italy.

In Germany you have to pay (35-40 EUR) for your blood test to check for deficiency even if you were previously found deficient and must re-check after supplementing. My doctor also doesn't give a fuck and never asked me to re-test.

Same in Germany. Even when paying privately (despite being in the common healthcare), I've had problems getting an appointment.

It's sad, because a full blood profile (including hormones) has such huge cost to benefit ratio in avoiding completely unnecessary speculative wild goose chases.

I understand why this is the way it is (cost-savings), but this needs to change. It has been shown that preventative screening can be very cost effective as opposed to reactive treatment.

Roughly the same in the UK, at least in my experience.

In Romania, getting blood work is very common, even for trivial things. A few years back it was also very cheap, about 20-30 euros for the basics.

To be fair, that's not cheap for Romania. Most people can afford it, yes, but that doesn't mean it's cheap.

Agreed, it's not very cheap for Romania, but the ratio between salaries and blood test prices is better than in other Western countries, assuming prices have not changed significantly in the past few years.

I don't know if the ratio is better. In Spain wages are way higher and blood tests are free. And after reading some comments here it doesn't look that expensive in other countries compared to their median wages.

I know Romania pretty well and I'd say they have Romanian wages and European prices on almost everything.

When I was in the US they did a full test on me as a matter of routine. Here in Sweden they stare at me like I'm crazy when I ask if I could maybe get something tested.

A few tips from living in the Netherlands

1. Find a different huisarts, one that specializes in expats. Check on google maps reviews. I found a great one that will give me referrals whenever I ask. 2. Go to that doctor and tell them you've been tired and want to check nutrition levels.

We found a local huisarts that does walk-ins in the mornings which makes it much easier.

My partner went and said he was having stomach pains and that we recently went vegan, that was enough to get a referral for a blood test.

In Hungary you can get it done anytime for like 10 euros.

More complex screenings can cost between 30-100 euros.

Or get it all for free if your doctor prescribes it. It is quite easy, you just have to be a bit lucky to have a doctor who actually want to go trough the investigation about your health issues.

I have free health care through my university here in Finland and my doctor writes me any test I can back up sufficiently. If I want to go the private route, a basic blood panel with minerals and vitamins is somewhere around 100 euros. Not cheap but definitely doable.

In India, I can get almost any blood test with no requirement to get a prescription. The phlebotomist will even come home to collect the blood sample. The prices are fairly reasonable and most tests will be under $20.

You can get an extensive screening for around 120 here in Amsterdam. Probably more expensive if I go through official doctor and have to pay it with eigen risico (first few 100 euros of healthcare you pay yourself).

Where is that? I only looked online, I haven't found anything online that cheap that includes vitamin/mineral levels + hormones.

Did it at https://www.yourlabs.nl/, current price is 189. But you are right, hormones is a seperate test

Can you share the location please? Very interested

Did it at https://www.yourlabs.nl/, current price is 189. But you are right, hormones is a seperate test

If your car breaks you would spend 400 eur in an instant without even thinking. If you feel something is off or to do this comprehensive biochemical tests every 3 or 5 years is not that expensive.

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