In Brazil, a poor 3rd world country, we diagnose that on public healthcare without problems, at any age. I guess money is not the problem, just deciding how to allocate it.

For those who have insurance, yearly complete checkups are a thing for any adult, and the most basic insurances you get at work you would only pay the first $20 out of pocket for a doctor appointment and a few basic tests.

But if you don't have private insurance, you would still get appointments and tests if you have any symptoms, and the doctors are probably going to order a few tests if you didn't do a checkup for more than a year.

BTW: in my 15 years as diabetic there, I think I only bought insulin out of pocket 2 or 3 times - because I traveled and either forgot one (it's 2 insulins) or it went bad. Also, most of the time didn't pay for the test strips either. All paid by government. Saves them A LOT of money if diabetics don't get more sick and are able to work. In the times I had to buy, a pen cost like, $10 for the cheap, $30 for the expensive one?

Aren't you guys second world? With that darn acronym Bric? Not to be pedantic but approaching $2k per capita per month is a materially different life and culture than perhaps other comparable cultures at sub $1,000 per person per month

"Second" used to be the communist bloc, led by USSR. USSR was disbanded about 30 years ago, but the idea of numbered "worlds" persist.

(I'd assume that Russia and China are first-world countries now.)

The late Hans Rosling had a good update to the old conceptions of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd World. His take was to classify based on income levels on a log scale (well, 'log-ish', anyway). Hence the classifications of Level 1 (<$2/day), Level 2 (<$8/day), Level 3 (<$32/day), and Level 4 (>$32/day). This is my preferred way of mentally chunking the world and her people. Mostly because a lot of people are moving on up!

https://www.gapminder.org/fw/income-levels/

If you've not played around with the stats on gapminder before, go grad a cup of coffee and have some fun! The visuals are good and the interface is one where 4-D data is well presented. In messing around with it, you can see that the world is very much on an upward trajectory, but also has a long way to go.

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles

there are no first world countries among former third world countries, only first world cities

Well, first world regions too, sometimes.

Indeed. In Canada we have free healthcare and preventative screening but not everyone takes advantage of it.

No doubt a comprehensive screen at age 65 would explain some of it.

Edit: Indeed it does! Even those who have insurances prior to 65 see a spike.

https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/094169...

> free healthcare and preventative screening but not everyone takes advantage of it.

Sometimes these things are explained by looking at them from the other side. People aren’t taking advantage because the system wasn’t geared towards them or excludes them, or did in the past.

I have no idea what it’s like in Canada but the New Zealand healthcare system has some dark history and a history of institutional biases that are still a hinderance today. Despite being identified a long time ago, large gaps in healthcare exist here between various population groups. https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publicatio...

That is definitely true, but don't underestimate the number of patients who aren't all that interested or motivated to do what their doctor tells them to do. I worked in healthcare and even for very serious diseases, patient adherence to say taking their medicine regularly, is pretty atrocious (even when it's free).

Some of the things that have happened here are atrocious. It a while back now, but involuntary enrolment in a cervical cancer study occurred, where some patients were left to develop cancers to see if invasive cancer did actually occur.

More relevant though, and ongoing are the regular stories and findings that New Zealand is doing poorly with Maori health, with cancers found later and worse outcomes when treated. This persists after 20+ years of effort that was supposed to address it. It’s really bad as the differences in outcome are huge.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwright_Inquiry

https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health...

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Hauora_PrePubW.pdf

I think most people wouldn't "normally" get a checkup like this because it's extremely expensive to not just go to the doctor, but also deal with any issues that may be diagnosed.

FYI: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many annual wellness checkups are covered without copay or coinsurance for anyone with insurance. Anyone concerned should check into these benefits.

Obviously, those without any form of health insurance still fall through the cracks.

Many providers will code those appointments differently if they depart from "preventative care".

So like if you mention that your knee has been hurting, they will diagnose that and charge based on the diagnosis rather than the preventative care appointment.

Yeah its free until you get a random bill from the lab for tests that weren't covered.

There are a thousand ways for unscrupulous providers to turn what you thought was a wellness checkup into whatever they want.

I'm new to this, but on my first attempt at a "wellness checkup" the practice gave me a form to sign when I arrived explaining why they would be billing me: it wasn't really a "wellness checkup" because I might ask the doctor a question.

My point was that it’s not the checkup that costs a lot, it’s the treatment of what’s discovered that keeps people from wanting to get diagnosed in the first place.