[chrisseaton]

> Also get your tests done regularly. Blood test, etc. are super important and can detect issues early on.

In the US do you get some kind of yearly health checkup even if you're healthy with your blood tested and so on?

How come the NHS doesn't do this in the UK, I wonder? If I went to my NHS doctor and said I felt fine but asked for a general health-check and blood test they'd tell me to GTFO. Are we missing out on something that we should be getting?

[sofixa]

> How come the NHS doesn't do this in the UK, I wonder? If I went to my NHS doctor and said I felt fine but asked for a general health-check and blood test they'd tell me to GTFO.

WTF, in France you're encouraged to do so, and there are even reminders by (e)mail for stuff like dentist and specific preventive checkups for women.

[chrisseaton]

They do specific checkups like breast screening, but if you asked for a generic 'yearly checkup' they'd call you a time waster and probably write something on your record!

[markus_zhang]

I'm in Canada but you can request to do tests if you don't feel OK and sometimes you get them. It depends on the family doctor though, and the waiting time is very long. But once you get the appointments rolling then everything is fine.

I have insurance from job so I always make arrangements through private clinics who are glad to refer you to any place. One visit (to make appointments, not the tests) costs about 200 but insurance covers 80% so it's kinda OK. You also don't need to do it annually unless you are into 50 or 60.

[Breza]

The Affordable Care Act (also called "Obamacare") requires that all health insurance plans offer one healthy checkup every year at no cost to the patient.

[declnz]

The NHS does do this, just have to wait till you're 40: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-health-check/

[chrisseaton]

Hmmm once every five years, after 40? Why do countries like the US feel the need to do it for everyone every year? Are they excessive or are we lazy?

[DanBC]

The US testing is excessive.

Over-testing leads to over-diagnosis, and that leads to over-treatment. These sometimes cause harm, and tend not to reduce all cause mortality.

https://amjmed.org/over-testing-why-more-is-not-better/

> When ordering unproven screening tests for asymptomatic patients without good reason, few consider the low yield, high cost per diagnosis made, and considerable toll of false positives. Anecdotal accounts of unexpected diagnoses discovered on “routine” testing help perpetuate over-testing. But even the best tests yield more false positives than true positives when the prevalence of what one is testing for is low. Others order tests to establish a “baseline,” but this has been shown repeatedly not to improve care for asymptomatic patients and consumes hundreds of millions of health care dollars per year.1, 2 Abnormal results that later prove erroneous engender unnecessary anxiety and needless follow-up testing. Ordering only medically indicated tests reduces our role as instigators of needless worry and, as an added benefit, helps lessen physicians’ workload.