Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by DanBC 2892 days ago
You're making the mistake of thinking that over-testing, over-diagnosis, and over-treatment saves lives, when it probably doesn't, and may well decrease length of life as well as quality of life.

The US has massive rates of testing for various stuff. It also has a lower life-expectancy than other similar nations.
1 comments
Retric 2891 days ago
US life expectancy rate relates to poor healthcare and poor public health more than over testing. When you let a large chunk of the population die from treatable illnesses it's hard to make up for that by treating a subset even better than average.

The US homeless population for example is 1.56 million people and they don't get good healthcare.

link
DanBC 2891 days ago
The simple message is that over testing causes harm and does not reduce all cause mortality.
link
Retric 2891 days ago
That's the message some groups are sending. But, many people have an incentive to save money by reducing testing even it costs many people their lives.

So their exists some cases of over testing, but under testing is also common and a huge risk.

link