8 ms·

To play devil's advocate. Are you a doctor? Are you qualified to know if a metabolic panel is required? While I have to admit since I moved to the US (from the

by sh1mmer 17y ago

To play devil's advocate. Are you a doctor? Are you qualified to know if a metabolic panel is required? While I have to admit since I moved to the US (from the UK) my physician seem more free conduct things like blood tests than the NHS they don't any more free about it than BUPA my private health insurance in the UK. The main difference I see is that with my PPO insurance I'm free to willfully ignore my doctor's advice and take other actions if it suited me with the insurance footing a large part of the bill. That definitely isn't true in the UK (or on Kaiser actually). While I feel I'm an informed consumer of health care, I'd still rather be in a system where I don't need to go outside the system because the system is capable of looking after me adequately. And this is the crux, while it seems universal health care countries seem constrictive they provide for everyone. The real cost of being able to pick and choose your treatments, or take needlessly expensive treatment is insurance/medical costs that are beyond the budgets of 1/6th of the American population.

rdouble 17y ago
I'm not a doctor but I went to university and took chemistry, biology, mathematics and whatnot. I'm also an informed person who knows how to google "what is a metabolic panel" and understand the information presented. Considering this, I'm qualified to request a metabolic panel for myself. It's just a series of diagnostics and there's no reason not to have it done. The tests did indeed show the beginnings of a problem that is correctable but is harder to fix if I would have waited until actual clinical symptoms showed up. One problem with health care that is that the model of doctor as gatekeeper is not scalable. This problem will not go away with any sort of health care reform. There are simply too many humans in the world for there to be a reasonable patient to doctor ratio. You should be able to go into a booth at Wal-Mart and get a metabolic panel, celiac test, blood-born STD, and whatever else for between $50-$100. If something weird shows up you can schedule an appointment with a GP. The system now is the opposite, and is a waste of time for everyone involved.

by sh1mmer 17y ago

rdouble 17y ago

I'm not a doctor but I went to university and took chemistry, biology, mathematics and whatnot. I'm also an informed person who knows how to google "what is a metabolic panel" and understand the information presented. Considering this, I'm qualified to request a metabolic panel for myself. It's just a series of diagnostics and there's no reason not to have it done. The tests did indeed show the beginnings of a problem that is correctable but is harder to fix if I would have waited until actual clinical symptoms showed up. One problem with health care that is that the model of doctor as gatekeeper is not scalable. This problem will not go away with any sort of health care reform. There are simply too many humans in the world for there to be a reasonable patient to doctor ratio. You should be able to go into a booth at Wal-Mart and get a metabolic panel, celiac test, blood-born STD, and whatever else for between $50-$100. If something weird shows up you can schedule an appointment with a GP. The system now is the opposite, and is a waste of time for everyone involved.