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Comment by eftychis | Hacker News Reader

That is [an] incorrect conclusion to make.

In other developed (or even developing) countries, going to a doctor if you feel anything is not a financial question. You just go. Also annual bloodwork -- without needing to even do a doctor visit -- is sometimes a thing.

You can go to the specialist you think you need. Got a heart/chest issue: you go to the specialist and do not worry if it is covered or how to pay them.

Disclaimer: lived/live for years in both Europe and U.S. I also have a glimpse of how the japanese system works and South America a bit too. These things are not comparable. You would think North Americas are a different "world far far away."

tl;dr: I find the average in the U.S. surprising. Then I look at the median life expectancy.

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I agree it’s better when folks don’t have to worry about affording healthcare. I’d like a single-payer universal system here.

That doesn’t mean an annual physical is good for you.

Annual physical in the U.S. is one's chance to get a "relatively free" doctor visit for an issue they have.

The conclusion that if you are healthy there is a higher chance to have a false positive is misleading.

a) that is true by definition: they have asserted the patients are healthy already; b) statement assumes that in the U.S. people go to the doctor at the same rate as they go in other countries; and thus have a chance to test themselves / do checkups necessary to their particular family/individual risk profile;

So drawing the directive that annual physicals are to be discarded is hypocritical. And to be substituted with "questionnaires" is .. [well I don't really have words.] They are stretching for a conclusion to remove the ~free annual requirement.

(cc from your linked blog study/recommendation): > Second, they acknowledge that if the annual visit is to be discarded, primary care doctors will need to find a more proactive way to monitor their patients' attention to preventive care. They suggest that waiting for patients to keep their annual visits to review this is too "passive" an approach, and encourage practices to shift to "active engagement" of their patients. Ways to do this might include: online risk assessments, waiting-room questionnaires, and a review of preventive care at any visit to the doctor.

> Annual physical in the U.S. is one's chance to get a "relatively free" doctor visit for an issue they have.

Again, fixing that absurdity would be great. Not by giving more annual physicals, but by removing the payment aspect of things like much of the developed world has.

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