Going for a medical checkup at least once every year should be made mandatory for all. Without doubt, there are several negatives associated with regular visits to the doctor's office especially when it is being monitored by some kind of higher authority. However, the positive far outweighs the negative.
In a country like mine where a lot of people depend on faith and spirituality to heal them of all ailments, compulsory medical checkups will definitely extend the life expectancy rate over here. As in, there are so many people out there who go to bed one night and never wake up again. They end up dead.
The family members won't even bother to run an autopsy. Rumours and conspiracy theories will instantly rent the air, most of it based on spirituality. That's when the relatives will remember the dead had been fighting a spiritual battle with some powerful folks nearby and probably died because he or she was overpowered in his or her sleep.
Compulsory mental checkups are even more important nowadays with the amount of mental and emotional stress one goes through these days. Due to the rising cost of goods and services in the country, a lot of people are always on the edge without knowing it. People get into damaging fights for the littlest of things. Emotions are always running high. Regular mental checkups will help regulate that.
One of the merits of medical checkups, compulsory or not, is early detection and treatment of ailments. In recent years, cancer cases are growing in the country. People are dying from it a lot more than before and that's because most people with cancer never knew they had it till it's nearly too late. Cancer takes years to grind a person down. With a compulsory checkup at least once in a year, cancerous growth would be spotted and tackled head on as early as possible. That will save many lives.
Another important advantage is the increase in awareness about one's health. Not too long ago a woman died from some form of exertion. Spiritualists concluded some witches killed her. However, an autopsy showed she had low blood sugar and wasn't really aware of it. That thing killed her: ignorance. Also, a lot of people are being dealt with by diabetes as we speak. They probably didn't know they had it and continued enjoying beers that have an abundance of complex sugar.
For everything with advantages, there are disadvantages. In this case, the disadvantage is even more since some form of punishment from the authority is involved. One of those is the very unavoidable invasion of privacy. Since it's a law overseen by the government it also means they will have some degree of access to the results. In a country where corrupt officials are at the highest of political posts, it simply means sensitive data are neither secured nor private. It won't be a surprise if one government official sells the health data of a person to those who may hurt that person with it.
Another problem that comes with mandatory medical checkup is the financial hole it will burn in one's pocket. Most people who are not doing medical checkups are not stupid, they know that it could be important. However, they also know it could be expensive. That's why everyone isn't trooping to the doctor's office for checkups. In a country where insurance of any kind doesn't get a look at from the lower to the middle class families, mandatory check ups will be expensive.
In conclusion, despite the disadvantages I'm all out for regular checkups. But I would prefer it if the authority doesn't get involved. And instead of threatening fines and punishments, educating people and making healthcare relatively cheap will encourage people to go for regular checkups. Once people are aware of the benefits and that it's very affordable they won't even wait to be forced.
