alt Hacker NewsThere’s an economic disconnect working against preventative medicine in the USA. The commercial interests take more of a cut on the expensive reactive treatments.
I’m from a country where you are mailed things like a free bowel cancel screening kit every two years unsolicited from the time you turn 50 (Australia). The reason is that the kit and test cost a few cents and detecting it early saves the socialised medical system so much money this sort of thing is a no brainer. There’s a direct economic incentive for socialised medicine to integrate preventative care into day to day life.
Replies
Nobody's twirling their mustaches hoping people get sick, but they don't need to be for fee-for-service incentives to bias standard practice towards responses to conditions rather than prevention. On the other hand: you can go too far the other direction (and some cardiologists would point to CAC tests as an example). Preventative care can be bad if the tests drive unnecessary procedures.
There SHOULD be the same incintive in private health care like the US to also lower costs. but when we voted in the ACA (Obamacare) there was a well meaning clause that said insurers had to spend 85% of their premiums on care. That should also re-inforce the cost savings part, but then the largest companies started buying Pharmacies, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, Doctors offices, and even whole Hospitals.
Now they can still spend 85% of the INSURANCE premiums on care, but then those costs are going to their other divisions which can raise prices at will, and make massive profits for the whole group.