Click and Clack would refer to the check engine light as the "empty your wallet light" (paraphrasing).
If your car starts easily and runs well, has no changes in fuel economy, and you have been keeping up with basic maintenance, it's probably fine.
Same with people. Sure there are some people who just drop dead out of the blue. But most people have symptoms. Unexplained weight gain or loss. Fatigue. Difficulty sleeping. Changes in bodily functions. For most people, if you have no symptoms and feel healthy, you most likely are. If you have family history of certain problems, of course be more vigilant about that.
We can't possibly continually test everybody for everything that might possibly be wrong with them, at least not until we have Star-Trek style medical devices. Unjustified testing in the absence of symptoms will simply further drive up the cost of medical care for those who really need it. One could argue that it already has.
There are two questions - whether someone who can afford it would receive a net benefit from more testing and whether we want to pay for that for everyone. Many of the answers given to the question of whether more tests are worthwhile don't make this distinction.
If your car starts easily and runs well, has no changes in fuel economy, and you have been keeping up with basic maintenance, it's probably fine.
Same with people. Sure there are some people who just drop dead out of the blue. But most people have symptoms. Unexplained weight gain or loss. Fatigue. Difficulty sleeping. Changes in bodily functions. For most people, if you have no symptoms and feel healthy, you most likely are. If you have family history of certain problems, of course be more vigilant about that.
We can't possibly continually test everybody for everything that might possibly be wrong with them, at least not until we have Star-Trek style medical devices. Unjustified testing in the absence of symptoms will simply further drive up the cost of medical care for those who really need it. One could argue that it already has.