Yet another blog for spewing. This one may end up with a lot of religious and social content.

2009-06-11

Prevention

My insurance, which I am now paying for on COBRA (made affordable by a 65% subsidy in the stimulus package, thank you!) does not cover annual physicals!

Seriously, the one thing that could help reduce the severity of chronic diseases is early diagnosis and treatment. The other thing is regular monitoring. But my insurance, like many others, does not cover this. It only covers mammograms after age 40, although it covers annual pap smears before then.

It does not cover routine physicals for men, in spite of the fact that many male problems like prostate cancer and heart disease benefit from early diagnosis and treatment. It only sort of covers the reproductive system for women, but not general physicals. Yet thyroid, heart disease and all of those problems are best treatable when diagnosed early.

IMO, any health plan, public or private, should be required by law to cover general annual physicals for adults, just like many cover well baby and child physicals. The long term cost savings, not only in terms of cash but misery, would be staggering.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, most insurance plans don't cover annual physicals. The way around this is to go in with some complaint or two which requires a "workup" to rule out various problems. The "workup" usually equates to the annual physical. If, like me, you have a number of chronic conditions, or even allergies, this is not hard to do. My doc checks me annually, or more frequently if necessary, for any heart problems, changes in blood components, throat, eyes, hearing and lungs, just about all that is covered in the annual physical. Occasional breathing problems led to just such a going over which found that my allergies had, indeed, progressed to asthma, my tiredness to anemia and B-12 deficiciency and my thyroid not so low as it had been, all at various years over the past four or five. The thing is, one must have a complaint which triggers the kind of checking i.e. EKG, eyes and hearing, ears, nose and throat and bloodwork which mimics a "physical" without it being called such. One just has to know how to play the game, as usual. (grin)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RAVAN!!! AND MANY, MANY MORE --- Love you! Mom