Women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer, according to updated guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Before having a mammogram, women ages 40 to 49 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened, according to the task force.
Task force? Now there's a term I'd like to explore for a moment.
Just what was the make-up of this "so-called" government task force?
Well, the article tells us what it was NOT:
The task force is composed of 16 health care experts, none of whom are oncologists. The group reviews medical data and bases recommendations on effectiveness and risks involved.
This is where the entire thing loses any possibility of having any credibility, at all.
Welcome to Obamacare. Welcome to government run healthcare. Here we have a government entity formulating policy on cancer prevention, and not one of the members was an oncologist. Welcome to the age of Orwellian philosophy, as it was written.
The story says "16 health care experts". Does this mean they are doctors, nurses, radiologists, healthcare administrators, or bean-counters at an HMO? Maybe, some of them were housekeepers in a hospital.
This is what happens when the government is awarded too much power. Luckily, most doctors are probably going to disregard the advice. But what if you or someone you love falls into this age group, after being forced into a public option? How would you feel?
If I were you, I'd be afraid of what the government says and does (especially when they put us all at risk).
3 comments:
Rationing. That's what this made me think of. Hospitals around here are completely ignoring this report, and instead using the American Cancer Society recommendations. Many fear that, in the future, gov't will tell doctors what types of procedures are necessary. This report isn't going to allay any of those fears.
The other thing this made me think of is that I like boobies.
It is rationing and there is another angle here. It is not just government rationing. This gives the HMO's leverage to deny coverage to women for mammograms until 50 years old. It's a brave new world.
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