# Regular health check ups: Yay or Nay **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regular-health-check-ups-yay-or-nay/749013 "2016-03-14T21:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 20
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2016, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regular-health-check-ups-yay-or-nay/749013/20 "2016-03-15T06:25:27Z")
From that same other thread, **JoseB** ’s reply to the quote in the OP: > [@Lovely! They found I have a tumor in my kidney!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovely-they-found-i-have-a-tumor-in-my-kidney/746436/29): > > I already had had some flank pains for a while, but I did not think they were important. They were not particularly bad, and it is only in retrospect that I see that it was likely related to my kidney. > > I am still happy that I decided to do this check up. I looked at it as akin to the “5 year tune-up” for my car. I still consider it money well spent. YMMV. He likely wouldn’t have gone to the doctor if he hadn’t been prompted, but since he got prompted and since it had been a while from his last checkup, he decide to take it. Note that he wasn’t required to go to the doctor or to get the MRI: both were offered and it was **JoseB** who chose to have them, but there’s no requirement, it’s an offer. I was offered a checkup myself recently and took it because I hadn’t been to the doctor in 3 years and wanted to have one before starting a new exercise program; having it offered meant not having to ask for it myself. In my case, the people involved would have been paid the same with or without checkup (they’re salaried) and the companies involved would have been paid the same with or without checkup (it’s a legally-mandated package deal). In an economy in which doctors charge for crossing a patient in the hallway, mileage will evidently vary. Being offered a checkup annually: aye. Taking it: I don’t, based on my own medical history and my family’s, but others do. My mother gets checkups a lot more frequently than annually because between mental, physical, self-inflicted, medication-inflicted and other, her medical history used to occupy four whole folders. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regular-health-check-ups-yay-or-nay/749013)._