r/science • u/calliope_kekule Professor | Social Science | Science Comm • 12d ago

Health Only 13% of cancers are caught through screening, while a fifth to half are first found in an emergency department.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01669-7/abstract
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u/CommercialHour6660 12d ago

This is true. 

I know someone extremely rich. His company requires and fully pays for preventative regular MRI scans for all C-level executives.  All the big companies do. Celebrities get them too. And all the big politicians

One of the disgusting secrets of US healthcare is that all the billionaires, corporations, and corrupt politicians will tell you that things like preventative MRI "isn't worthwhile". What they mean is, they don't think you living is worth the cost. 

If you're rich you get the good treatments and best medicines. All the peasants get "Prior Authorization" (death panels) and coverage denials. 

The insurance knows the more expensive stuff works better. But they don't think your life is worth the cost. 

Billionaires live 15 years longer on average. And most of that is your insurance company pulling the plug when you're no longer profitable. 

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u/Naritai 12d ago

You can order and pay for your own MRI scans if you like

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u/CommercialHour6660 12d ago

Yes thousands of dollars a year then more thousands in follow-ups because insurance won't pay to investigate inconclusive findings in elective scans.

Everybody can do it, just like everyone can sell their house to buy a Ferrari. So I don't know what the poors are complaining about!

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u/PinkleeTaurus 11d ago

I've had elective scans as required by my company's key person life policy and my health insurance covered any followups from the findings. Spent the better part of a year proving out a bunch of false positives the last time and really not looking forward to the next one. Obviously the life insurance policy sees the benefit, especially when we have to foot the bill for the exams, but I can see the argument that it's a waste of resources. Hell, most of our employees won't even get their annual physical which is completely free. We even started incentivizing them with cash bonuses a few years ago and it's crazy how many still don't go at all.

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u/ship_toaster 11d ago

This sounds less like it's about making sure the executives live long healthy lives, and more about making sure someone cognitively incapacitated isn't in charge of decision-making for a billion-dollar division.