I am retired and on a HMO plan. For years now I have gone for these check-ups. They do blood and urine lab work. This got to be just too inconvenient and I began to put off my appointments to 9 months and 1 year. Now my Dr. no longer does this plan and I have a new Dr. So I went for 1 of those visits and then called in to put off the next one. It has been a year now since I have seen this Dr. and the association he is a part of is getting really ancy about it. They sent me a certified letter. The thing is that I have no problems and have had none for a very long time, so I just do not see the point of spending my time and the HMO's money for something that I do not need. The last time I had lab work done (just blood work) it cost the insurance co. $656. Then of course the Dr. get paid for my visit. There is $1200 per year taken out of my SS check. So not only is my premium being used up but someone is making up the difference. You can see that there will be more of these "wellness visits" by almost everyone under the new ACA plans. Should they have these visits? They obviously cost the insurance company which causes everyone's premiums to go up - and for the ACA it is likely the tax-payer who picks up the tab for the difference. I say go to the Dr. when you get sick and don't waste everyone's money for nothing.
It's a difficult one. I'd suggest that for anyone getting older, some kind of annual check-up is a good idea since there a lot of things that you may never notice but could be caught early by a doctor, making them much, much less of a problem to deal with. I'm not convinced any kind of pathology tests are necessary in anyone in general good health with no symptoms or concerns otherwise identified though. I think it is an issue with any kind of medical service paid by the procedure and/or time spent encourages over testing and over treatment to make money. I'm not sure how you'd achieve it there but you really need advice from a medical professional with no vested interest in anything other than giving you a straight answer.
The older one gets the more aware he/she is that the end is in sight and that doctoring may only prolong the agony or even speed up the end with their poison potions. I think Nature knows best and anyone over 80 should just go with it. At that age there are many things that just can't be fixed. Diet and lifestyle have everything to do with staying healthy. The questionnaire that I filled out for this Doctor asked Nothing about what kind of food I ate or what kind of exercize I did. This does not bode well for increasing my faith in their knowledge of any condition that I may develop or their ability to give advise on a cure.
