| Mammograms are not needed for women in their | | | | human element is not a factor to the number |
| 40s with average cancer risk, according to the US | | | | crunchers, but it is to families. |
| Preventative Services Task Force. This | | | | Our family had a harrowing brush with breast |
| government-funded authority issued new | | | | cancer many years ago. It was the fall of 1957 |
| guidelines suggesting screening procedures be | | | | when my mother, then in her early 40s, |
| dropped even though 40,000 American women | | | | discovered a lump in her breast. Examinations |
| die every year from breast cancer. How could | | | | determined it was cancer, surgery was |
| they come to this conclusion and does it suggest | | | | recommended and a radical mastectomy was |
| full-scale health care rationing is on its way? | | | | performed. Afterward, a series of deep x-ray |
| In addition to advising those in their 40s to forego | | | | treatments followed, which made mom |
| mammograms, the task force suggests that | | | | extremely ill; however, she fought through the |
| those ages 50 to 74 skip annual screenings in | | | | discomfort and received the recommended |
| favor of scheduling them on an every other year | | | | dosage. In those days the survival rates were |
| basis. At the same time the guidelines advise | | | | pretty low, but my mother beat the cancer and |
| doctors to stop teaching patients how to perform | | | | died, just a few years ago, from natural causes |
| self-examinations. | | | | at the age of ninety. Had it not been for early |
| Are these the recommendations of a physicians' | | | | detection and treatment, she would not have |
| group? Were the findings a result of research | | | | enjoyed all those years and we would have |
| conducted by the cancer society? No, the | | | | missed the joy of her presence. This is our |
| guidelines came from a government appointed | | | | family's story, but there are thousands and |
| panel. Even though the examinations could | | | | thousands of success stories with one thing in |
| continue to save lives, there are fewer cases of | | | | common: early detection saves lives. |
| cancer in younger women; so the panel concluded | | | | The task force issuing the guidelines was |
| that the costs and patient stress associated with | | | | appointed by the previous administration, but such |
| possible false positives did not pencil out in terms | | | | panels will become more powerful as the |
| of risks versus rewards. | | | | government becomes more involved in running |
| In the last year, $3.3 billion was spent on | | | | the nation's health care system. Therefore, the |
| mammograms. If insurance companies and | | | | concern is not about one set of guidelines for one |
| physicians adhere to the new guidelines, this | | | | deadly disease. It's about who has control over |
| expenditure will be greatly reduced. But what | | | | our health care decisions. This is troubling to all of |
| about the person who does not benefit from | | | | us, particularly pre-boomers on Medicare, because |
| early detection? They will be a statistic in the | | | | it could signal the beginning of rationing and the |
| government's data bank even though they are | | | | end of quality health care as we know it. |
| someone's daughter, sister, wife or mother. The | | | | |