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To be fair, you'll eventually die whether you go to the appointment or not.

By "eventually" I mean a cascading series of events and degradations. I won't die the day after the missed appointment, but I'd almost certainly die within the year from that specific disease. Otherwise I'd die at a presumably much later date, barring accidents and other new health issues. I'd prefer the later date.

Most people understand there's a difference between "we're all gonna die someday from something" vs. "if I don't do X within a relatively few days and do ongoing maintenance treatments Y I'm gonna die of disease Z in short order."

To imply there's not a meaningful difference between several decades' longevity vs. dead in a month isn't fair.

Depends. I don't think I have ever actually heard anybody say something like "if I don't do this, I'll eventually die", without some humorous intent. I had to read the post a couple of times to convince myself this wasn't the intention here.

Type I diabetics tend to be intensely aware of the consequences of neglecting their immediate care.

(Looking at the above, I see that I should make it clear that just I'm bringing it up as an example of a group that approximately thinks like you say.)

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