Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Well, he could

I think that getting antibiotics for bronchitis from the doctor's office...
Mary Anne — (archived)

...is less expensive, and easier on the patient, than a trip to the emergency room with acute pulmonary distress caused by walking pneumonia.

I think that diagnosis of and treatment for strep is less expensive than treatment for rheumatic fever, which is one of the complications of untreated strep infection, via scarlet fever, into which it develops.

I think that treatment for early glaucoma, involving a trip to an optician for diagnosis, is less expensive than letting someone go blind from it. By the time the sufferer notices symptoms, it's too late to treat.

I also think that routine dental care is less expensive than treating bacterial infections resulting from infected gums and abscesses (again including heart disease), as well as making it easier to eat things that are good for you.

Right now, with the "emergency care" option, people get treated for things that might kill them, sometimes, but the preventative care that can keep them out of the emergency room in the first place is missing.

Also missing: any type of trust-based relationship with medical professionals. People only listen with half an ear when they are in high-stress situations being talked at by professionals who they have no expectation of ever seeing again.

Of course there's no free lunch. What we have now isn't free, either, and it's horrifyingly expensive in terms of human suffering.

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