Vindication for those who have said that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations would be used to limit access to mammograms:
The eligibility age for state-subsidized breast cancer screening has been raised from 40 to 50 by the California Health and Human Services Agency, which will also temporarily stop enrollment in the breast cancer screening program.
[...]
The state’s decision, announced Dec. 1 and effective Jan. 1, follows a controversial federal recommendation last month that mammograms before the age of 50 are generally not needed.
However, the public health department also linked the change to California’s budget woes.
And for those who think that the private insurance companies are so evil, they are the ones who have rejected the guidelines:
Moreover, private health care systems such as Scripps Health have rejected the federal task force’s recommendation, choosing instead to keep the existing standard, which calls for a mammogram at age 40, with annual mammograms thereafter.
That means doctors will be using two medical practice guidelines, distinguished not by knowledge but by the pocketbook, said Dr. Jack Klausen, a gynecologist and obstetrician who practices at Vista Community Clinic.
The insurance companies realize that it’s cheaper for them to provide a mammogram than to treat cancer, 28% of new cases are of women in their 40′s according to Scripps.
In the article they state the costs of false positives but what about the cost of the cancer that goes undetected until it’s too late? Chemo, radiation, surgery, hospice, it all adds up. Did the state even calculate that cost? But more importantly, do they even care about the toll their policy will take in human lives?
This is what happens when you let the government control your health care options. Unfortunately, the poor have no choice but the rest of America does.
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posted December 7, 2009 at 4:41 pm
People who do not have any medical coverage are the ones who have no choice.
Anyone who does not like California’s guidelines can move or they can protest and handle the problem legislatively The same recommendations about screenings were handed out 2 yrs ago by the College of Physicians.
posted December 7, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I’m willing to wait another ten years for mine, thank you.
posted December 9, 2009 at 6:16 pm
“This is what happens when you let the government control your health care options.”
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/probability-breast-cancer
well, this doesn’t concern those who can afford private insurance. but for those californian women who are too poor to buy their own insurance and qualify for state subsidies, they can still get mammograms over the age of 50. what is the percentage of women over the age of 50 who are diagnosed with cancer? i bet (based on research) that it’s more than the claimed 28% in their 40s. and i am more sure that they will be glad that the government subsidies are there and that the system wasn’t bled out of existence from mostly unnecessary procedures.
michele, i think you’ve made a very clear and powerful argument in favor of the public option for those many women over 50 who can’t afford mammograms. thank you.