Recently, my mother suffered from heart failure, and has been through the laborious process of determining whether it is congenital or not. Myself and two brothers have been informed that we may have excessively larger hearts for our body size, which could bring on the same problems later in life for us. However the doctor's advice, was not to go for a scan that would confirm this.
He stated that with this result on our medical records, it would make it near impossible to get a decent mortgage, or be granted a loan in the future. Despite my eldest brother having symptoms of fainting which could be related, we are still all afraid to get it confirmed by a practice, because of these repercussions.
Insurance policies and loans have always relied on information about the state of health of their customers, in order to know if the grant is viable or not. However, this is now causing people who could be taking steps to enhance their health, to opt out of seeking medical advice. Does this seem a fair system?
Of course, in an ideal world we'd have free access to all healthcare, insurance and education etcetera. We know this is unrealistic. But should there be a system for determining who is affected the most financially, due to their health? Who should be allowed to compromise on their healthcare in order to live a stress free life?
Perhaps there should be an appeal option, where people can put forward their case and be allowed to hide their health problems.
And if companies can get us to sign left, right and centre to make sure we don't sue them, shouldn't there be an option for us to keep our backs covered?
This is of course completely and definitely unachievable. To do that would mean insurance companies, independent loan businesses and banks to lose money - that will never be willingly accomplished.
In contrast, this current state of affairs means that not only can I abstain access to the results of a heart scan, but also the dietary and lifestyle advice that may be vital to my survival.
If doctors are giving a quiet word to patients about hiding their medical records, then maybe this is something that needs to be actioned by a higher authority.