Monday, March 9, 2009

Health Care 2009

This week's TIME has an alarming cover story about the author's brother and his discovery, after being diagnosed with life-threatening kidney disease, that he was seriously underinsured.

At Paul's recent doctor visit, he asked for a PSA test and was denied because he's not yet 50; this despite the fact that everyone, male or female, on his mother's side of the family perished from one kind of cancer or another.

A recent study by Swedish doctors indicates that PSA testing before 50 is an effective early warning system. However, our government still cautions that PSA testing is dangerous because its propensity for false positives can mean unnecessary radiation and surgical treatment.

It seems pretty clear that preventive testing of this sort is not good for the insurance industry, or they'd be falling all over themselves offering it to 20-somethings.

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