I didn’t get the screening done. It’s put on the back burner right now. I don’t have any symptoms but just wanted it done for peace of mind. I’ll let you know how it goes when I get it done though.
Is there any hospital that does “free” cancer screening? I saw that there’s one test (colorectal cancer) in some hospital but it’s for citizens over 50.
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Also interested. Eye brows raise when the key concept of overcoming cancer is early detection and yet early testing isnt often available to the masses…wtf.
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Oral cancer screening is free for people over 30 and smoking and with NHI.
At dental or ENT department.
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I was surprised too at the lack of available, free cancer screening. I saw a sign saying come in for cancer screening info at a hospital but all the tests were for older people. I mentioned my family history and they said too bad, over 50 only.
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I guess it’s a matter of statistics and finding the optimal age to screen you.
there are limited resources, so they provide it to people statistically more at risk.
dementia and alzheimers are also terrible diseases, but to screen for them when you are at your 40s doesnt make sense…
same with colon cancer.
for those who are really worried, there is always the out of pocket option.
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I get that but those with family history should be an exception. Ignoring those people will result in a greater bill to nhi
Taiwan has AMPLE resources for this. Like, beyond enough. The issue is no incentives for governmwnt drones and corrupt pieces of shyte to actually care about people. The amount of money they spend in one county repaving roads that arent broken would be enough to screen the entire country annually.
The real question is: Is the government to blame for doing what gets them voted in, or the people to blame for being useless asses and never push for anything that doesnt directly affect themselves.
you are ignoring “opportunity cost”. the doctors, nurses and facilities needed to check healthy people who are still not at risk could he better utilized taking cre of people who are actually sick.
there is no point in "over checking " the population, and if you are really scared about something you can still get it done, only matter of money.
if the majority of colon cancer develops after one turns 50, to scan people in their twenties is a waste of time, effort and money. if yiu are unlucky and got it at 49, that is a tragedy, but from the point of view of the other 20 million people it’s one off case, nothing that necessitates screening every one.
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it depends on the disease and your age and general well being.
my grandparents on both sides had alzheimers, I’m at risk from a family historypoint of view, but no point of checking me when I’m young…
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Normally i would completely agree with you. But not in taiwan. And even.with regular NHI costs, the amount of make work government expenditures shoulld/could cover this. My oonly point is that health care isnt the priority they like to pretend it is. Either as a financial cost, a social program or a whatever.
Note i am speaking government spending as a whole. Surely they are separated in departments and they are not efficient in any metric. What i am trying to say is that isnt a good excuse, especially when they are apendig other peoples money (ours).
I agree they follow the numbers. And taiwan is famously known as the nation of elderly hypochondriacs. NHI has tried limiting doctor visits due to both this and doctor corruption. Bith sides are to blame, and the problem is absolutely real. Fair enough.
But with taiwan claiming leadership in biotek and medicine (rigtfully, taiwan is very capabale) then this BS lack of depth in their mrketing schemes is kind of annoying. Given taiwan has some of the highest cancer and related rates as well as some of the highest organ disease rates and is almost certainly directly related to economical devolpment (eg. Pollution, shitty food quality etc), there is zero excuse for the rule of testing once you become too old to become productive. Sorry, i mean 50 plus. We dont want cry bbaies in the hospital everyday when they feel less than optimal . Bu we also want to detect terminal illness before it becomes terminal. We do. It is not yet evident the government wants to…this is obvious based on numbers and lack of planning and organization.
Slightly arcane and dark point, but with Alzheimer’s is there much point in checking when you’re young? I had the impression the only thing you can do about Alzheimer’s risk is routine health maintenance: stay healthy, keep intellectually & physically active, etc.
There are treatments that while don’t cure it help to delay it and improve life quality.
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@Explant
Here Here.
They have enough funding to allow for old hypochondriacs to be seen daily and the clinic doctors to give 3 days medication and then insist you come back but a country of very high cancer rates can’t do screenings?
America with its high cost of care I can understand but not Taiwan. And people with family history at higher risk should not even be a question.
I personally didn’t like being lured in with the free cancer screening banner to be told its only for older people.
There was a paper published recently throwing around the idea of a very strong dietary link. Basically due to sugar, as far as I can understand it.
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A half-day health check (all kinds of things), including some basic cancer screening, is about $6k at Sanzong hospital in Neihu, Taipei. Highly recommended. That only works out to $16 NT per DAY, and you wouldn’t blink at dropping that on a bottle of water or something on a daily basis, but your health is much more important than that.
In the half-day check there is nothing stuck down your throat or up your butt. It is not as thorough as their full-day screening, but unless you go in once a year for something like this, you eventually run the risk of being told that your cancer (or something else) is already at an advanced stage and your prognosis is poor. Diagnosing a disease early means a much better chance of changing behavior early or receiving treatment early.
You can also just ask for some basic blood tests for white blood cell counts, tumor markers, liver function etc. at your local clinic. It may cost half to 2/3 as much as the full hospital test, though, so the extra couple thou at the hospital is a better deal. But at least try to get the basic blood tests annually, at any age. (I have lost friends from age 22 to their 30s and 40s to various cancers.)
Just do it, folks!
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Sounds like something I am going to need.
Four years ago when I was in Korea I was diagnosed with
Hodgkins Lymphoma and got 6 rounds of chemotherapy for
it. It was successfully done in Korea and right in time before
I had to leave Korea.
After I returned to Canada, I was unemployed for 9 months,
during that time I had to get checked for further treatment.
All I needed was radiotherapy, so I got that done in 2017, then
after I got my new job in Canada, I have been returning to the
hematologist every 3 months during my remission, then the
interval expanded to every 4 months. Then the next thing you
know I lost my job in Canada and I ended up here in Taiwan
last year. I was fortunate to return to Canada during Chinese
New Year to see the doctor during my remission, but after I
came back to Taiwan the COVID-19 pandemic messed up
everything. Then the school in Taoyuan where I was didn’t
extend my contract, and before I was about to head back to
Canada, I got a new job offer in west central Taiwan. And
because of the COVID-19 border closures and 14-day
quarantines, I could not do my remission appointment in
Canada as scheduled in July. So I re-scheduled my remission
appointment for February 2021. But the question is, will I
make it to Canada by then?
The hospitals here do not have any of my medical records
regarding my cancer treatment. All the records I got came
from Korea and were transferred to the hospital in Canada
where I got my radiotherapy treatment.
So my remission continues, however things would have been
a lot more convenient if it had not been for the COVID-19 pandemic
thanks to China.
Hi Kingdomparadise, I’m sorry to hear about your troubles with this and wish you the best with your continued remission. I suggest that first, you urgently request your records from Canada. Second, do you have NHI here? Third, I suggest immediately contacting an oncologist at a large, reputable hospital near you to explain your situation and see what they can do in the absence of your medical records (or once they get them). They might even have a way to officially request the records with your permission, who knows?
I agree. From a population health perspective, this is the way to go. Use evidence to drive health care policy. You will invariably miss some people who don’t go, don’t fit the exact criteria, but you capture as much of the at-risk population as possible while making sure your costs are controlled so you can still provide quality healthcare to the rest of the population on other health conditions.
The problem isn’t that the government doesn’t care. It’s that hospitals take advantage of NHI subsidized testing to the point where they will bankrupt NHI. The government actually does care a great deal from my perspective in the healthcare field. The issue is that the government is conservative when it comes to moving things along. The private sector has been helping a ton in bringing these issues and working with the government to get this stuff passed.