Why The Recent Task Force Panel Urging Mammograms at 50, Not 40 Is Very Telling About Inevitable Rationing If Health Care Reform Passes

Remember how the left wing media and pundits mocked Sarah Palin when she mentioned 'rationing' and 'death panels' in the Democrat Health Care Reform? The actual language was "Medical Review Board" for the elderly. However, it amounted to the same thing. The language disappeared from the Senate Finance Committee Bill due to the scruitiny only to reappear in Pelosi's bill.

Make no mistake about it. In order to cover the millions of new people with the same amount of doctors and to reduce costs, the Government plans to ration care.  Supporters of Health Care Reform will shout 'liars!' 'fear mongers!' To them, I say....Facts Are Stubborn Things.

Pat Racimora writing for No Quater sums it up beautifully.

How does the government plan to ration care? Well they can't do it blatantly because of the backlash. So they will do it slowly, quietly, in little bits and pieces off to the side, and maybe no one will notice.

Well, a new set of mammogram recommendations has just been issued, and it would appear to be a good example of such a sly attempt.


A government appointed group, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), is no friend to women and the men who love them. It turns out this group is issuing recommendations for screening women for breast cancer that diverge substantially from what is in place now. Here are a few of the lowlights:

No more routine mammograms for women under 50. (Women under 50 do get breast cancer, and with younger women is it often a very aggressive type.)

Mammograms for women in their 50s and 60s are recommended every two years instead of the currently recommended annual exam. (Cancers can do a lot of growing in two years.)

Teaching or encouraging women to do self-exams is no longer recommended. (They say it has no value, but I know two women who were months away from their next exam when they felt something suspicious. For one, the cancer was aggressive and she would have been at Stage 4 before her next exam.)

Screening for women over 74 is not recommended at all. (Whaaaaaat?)

I have several friends who would be dead now were these recommendations to be in force. And the American Cancer Society and many other experts and authorities are outraged by this report.
The USPS Task Force apparently assumes that we all have the intelligence of a bag of hair. For example, why should women over 74 not be screened? Their astounding answer is, “More research is needed before recommendations for or against mammography screening after age 74 can be made.” Huh? That’s like saying, “Don’t have a check-up until you become really sick.” In the meantime, lots of those pesky old women might die, saving many millions of dollars. And this outfit has the balls to call itself The U S Preventive Services Task Force?

Another example: The Task Force contends that having fewer mammograms will cause women less anxiety. True, the procedure is unpleasant, but it takes only a few minutes and then it’s over for a year. And call-backs and false positives do extend the anxiety. But, in the meantime how many more would have to go through the intense anxiety of dealing with breast cancer?

Final example: The Task Force notes that “1,904 women between the ages of 39 and 49 would need to be invited for screening to have one breast cancer death prevented; 1,339 women between the ages of 50 and 59 would need to be invited for screening to prevent one death; and 377 women between the ages of 60 and 69 would need to be invited for screening to prevent one death.” OK, I don’t have a clue what “invited for screening” means, but the wording is clearly meant to make us believe that screening doesn’t save all that many lives. Hold the phone! Is it not possible that they didn’t die because they were screened and were treated successfully? (Five out of the six women with breast cancer that I know well survived and remain cancer free.)

Oh, and by the way, this task force did not include an oncologist.

And we are not talking about a condition that is uncommon. According to the CDC, except for the typically curable and often minor forms of skin cancer, the number one type of cancer in women is breast cancer. For Hispanic women, breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer death. For white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women, it is the second major cause of cancer death. However, overall deaths from breast cancer are low on the list of all causes of death for women, and one just has to suspect that regular mammogram screening has a lot to do with that.

Everyone including members of this renegade task force agree that mammograms save lives—but the Task Force is saying not enough to count. If they can manage to force their recommendations into Health Care Reform (certainly the bottom line is to do that) so that Medicare and private insurance don’t have to pay for the recommendations currently in force, then a lot of insurance and government money could be saved at the expense, of course, of women.

In the meantime, I wonder if PSA tests for detecting prostate cancer will get the same overhaul? ( I wouldn’t hold my breath.)

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/11/19/new-recommendations-let-health-care-rationing-begin/