Literally way harder than any other country I've lived in. Nobody is taking new patients
It doesn't make sense because I thought everybody here tries to not go to the doctors as much as possible because of the costs
USA literally has a higher doctor per capita than all the other countries I've lived in too
What gives?
I believe it, like most other things that don't make sense in the west, comes down to profitability. Checkups aren't profitable compared to treating complications from not getting checkups.
The country is not broken. It's working exactly as designed.
Edit to add:
Urgent care, ER visits, and ambulance rides are a lot more lucrative. When the damage has been done enough to require more intensive treatment.
Do checkups not cost money? Last time I saw a doctor here, it was in an urgent care clinic for an issue I thought may have needed immediate prescriptions (I did not need anything at all) and it costed me a bit over 200 dollars
I was expecting at least 300 for the check up
Medications and treatments like dialysis have lobbyists and advertising. But if you just need to change your diet, take over the counter medications, or just have bed rest, that's not going to make the pharmaceutical industry money.
Insurance can't charge monthly for that. So you have ridiculous co-pay costs or a flat fee for the doctor's time.
No they do, around $250 for my last checkup
Checkups are kind of a waste of time though. If you suspect you are sick or if you have something specific that needs monitoring getting it checked is fine but if you're otherwise healthy there's no sense in going to a doctor and challenging them to find some hidden ailment.
No, this is just wrong. There is a reason most jobs where your body needs to be in good condition require, and pay for, yearly (or more often) checkups.
There are incredibly common deadly illnesses that can be found very easily by quick checkups. Heart and lung diseases, many types of cancer, and so on. And this would be even better and more worthwhile if the infrastructure was designed for it.
And the whole point of doctors is that they know better than you do whether you are healthy or not. Telling people to not go to the doctor when they are "healthy" doesn't make any sense. What is the doctor for then?
To make an ATM out of you.
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Yes but if the doctor doesn't know what to look for they'll either miss it or run a lot of tests for no reason. Or they could just do some quick general stuff like taking your blood pressure and weigh you but then again you don't need a doctor for that.
I'm not saying that they never find anything but overall checkups on healthy people are not a good use of limited healthcare resources.
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Prevention is good but you get better prevention by offering specific tests to people who are in one way or another in risk of getting something specific rather than a generalised checkup.
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Because there is only so many doctors and labs and machines.
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Annual blood work is good for this
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:downbear: The last few checkups finally got me a diagnosis, double checked a mole wasn't becoming cancer, and let me know I should keep eating vitamin D pills like candy.
I agree that checkups as they are now are a waste of time, but I'd say that's mostly because the people who can afford to do it routinely don't need it, and the ones who need it can't afford it. I know people who thought certain parts of their body were healthy for years, only to realize that it was a chronic illness or injury that could've been treated or reversed without much trauma.
I think a free annual check up (since we can't have something good like healthcare for all) would undo a lot of the damage done by the current healthcare system.