[tetromino_]

Counterexample from recent personal experience: I developed pain in my hand which made it difficult to type. Some googling revealed that my set of symptoms could be caused by 3 rather different underlying causes requiring very different treatments. Failing to treat the correct underlying cause could permanently damage my ability to use my hand, and thus my ability to earn a living.

I _needed_ to go to a physician for a preliminary assessment and then needed to get an X-ray, and have the X-ray interpreted by a professional, to know how to proceed.

Unless you somehow have built a medical lab in your basement with instruments and reagents to do bloodwork, take X-rays, etc., doctor visits are occasionally absolutely needed.

[jjk166]

And what are the odds you will encounter that situation again in the next 10 years? In the same time period, what are the odds you'll need a prescription for antibiotics for a common disease?

No one is saying you should stop seeing doctors entirely, but several things that currently require a doctor's appointment probably shouldn't.

[jeltz]

Anecdotally I have required antibiotics once the last 30 or 35 years so I doubt I would need it any time soon and if I need it I do not think I would be able to self diagnose reliably. Maybe I am an extreme outlier but I do not think taking antibiotics is common among my friends and family either, other than a friend who has chronic ear issues.

Personally I think antibiotics is one of the cases where having a gatekeeper is the most important since we must fight antibiotics resistance.

[tetromino_]

Based on past experience, I expect to encounter a situation requiring expert medical attention every 5 years, and a situation requiring only a common antibiotic prescription every 1-2 years.