Ladies, skip that mammogram! And so the ObamaCare rationing begins....

An influential federal task force has thrown a monkey wrench into Barry's plan to socialize our healthcare system. New guidelines issued by our Washington Overlords decree that women should hold off on routine mammogram screenings until they reach 50 years of age.

But you see, it's because they don't want you to worry too much about "false positives". And annual mammograms expose you to too much radiation!

Several patient advocacy groups and many breast cancer experts welcomed the new guidelines, saying they represent a growing recognition that more testing, exams and treatment are not always beneficial and, in fact, can harm patients. Mammograms produce false-positive results in about 10 percent of cases, causing anxiety and often prompting women to undergo unnecessary follow-up tests, sometimes-disfiguring biopsies and unneeded treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Nevermind that a few more women might die.

"Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it," said Daniel B. Kopans, a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School. "It's crazy -- unethical, really."

No Dr. Kopans, it's about saving money. Get with the program, OK?

They also suggest that you stop fretting over those routine breast self-examinations because they're generally a waste of time.

The new guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do regular self-exams and concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend that doctors do the exams or to continue routine mammograms beyond age 74.

Sorry Grandma, no mammogram for you!

Some questioned whether the new guidelines were designed more to control spending than to improve health. In addition to prompting fewer doctors to recommend mammograms to their patients, they worried that the move would prompt insurers to deny coverage for many mammograms.

Gee, ya think? But it's Barry and his minions laying down the rules, they have to be doing this for your own good, right? It's Hope and Change you can believe in!

The new recommendations took on added significance because under health-care reform legislation pending in Congress, the conclusions of the 16-member task force would set standards for what preventive services insurance plans would be required to cover at little or no cost.

I told you it was a rationing board!

Sixteen nameless, faceless bureaucrats will have the power to decide if you can or cannot receive potentially life-saving screenings or treatment. Not your doctor. And certainly not you.

Welcome to socialized medicine.

Posted at 09:43 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   Comments | Perm Link |
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