Barack Obama

Prior to 1993, consumers wishing to take an active part in their own healthcare and proactively receive medical testing to keep apprised of their health had very little options:  talk with your physician about ordering tests that insurance was unlikely to cover, go to an overcrowded health clinic that offered very little in testing options, or go to a hospital and convince them that you required emergency testing for a condition that you had no signs nor symptoms.  As one can imagine, none of these options proved very viable.  It was finally in 1993, with the birth of online medical testing, that the door was finally opened.

The first type of companies to offer online medical testing were those who specialized in STD testing.  As HIV fears spread throughout the community, and with many common STDs on the rise , people were no longer satisfied with an annual medical checkup that only focused on their age and a standard physical .  Alternatively, consumers began actively obtaining STD and HIV testing through companies that offered this service affordably, rapidly, and very confidentially .   While most insurance companies required a doctor’s visit and visible symptoms in order to okay testing, consumers could instead do an online search to find any one of thousands of completely confidential std testing centers.  The fees for this testing were often times less than that of a doctor’s visit and their own lab fee .

The number of individuals searching for such private medical testing are now estimated in the tens of thousands annually, and those figures don’t look to be declining any time in the near future .   Accessibility is not the only reason this type of testing is growing:  medical technologies, such as DNA testing, are also rapidly increasing and are offering consumers more options than ever before.   Paternity testing, cancer screening, heart screening, and other health related tests are now offered openly to the public.  More than at any time in history, people now have the ability to assess their own predisposition for many life threatening conditions that can show up later in life.

Future healthcare regulations may make some people think that private medical testing will no longer be necessary, but most experts differ.  Cost containment is going to be absolutely necessary to keep a nation’s medical costs from skyrocketing, so the level of testing offered by future medical plans might actually be decreasing, instead of increasing.  With a continued focus on health and self advocacy, it looks like private medical testing will be an invaluable  component of any of the proposed new healthcare regulations.

Regardless of the manner in which you get tested, experts agree that   it’s important that you do.  Early detection is critical for any type of medical condition, and waiting until you are showing signs or symptoms may be too late .

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