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Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads by fragmede on Thursday February 13, 2025 @02:52PM (#43040471)
> Society will pay for 100,000 tests

For better or worse, under the American healthcare system, the patient pays for those tests, sometimes covered by insurance. If the tests are paid for out of pocket by the patient, is there still such issue?

Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads by mlyle on Thursday February 13, 2025 @03:58PM (#43041253)
The economic argument doesn't change whether it's a private cost or purely a social cost (private costs are included in social costs, since private expenditures are part of society's expenditures).
Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads by s1artibartfast on Thursday February 13, 2025 @03:04PM (#43040604)
I think the issue is exactly the same no matter who pays.

To reframe it from the individual patient's perspective, when you take a test simply for the sake of screening, there is the chance you'll learn something true that helps you, and the chance you will learn something false that hurts you