Healthcare Rationing Has Arrived!

Remember the solemn promise by the President and the Democrats that healthcare reform would NOT result in rationing? Well, it appears the Whitehouse has taken the first step to do precisely that!  A new government study concluded that women should NOT get mammograms as is currently recommended.

The American Cancer Society currently recommends, "Women age 40 and older should have a screening mammogram every year, and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health."  A study just released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, however, stated that regular mammography screening need not be started before age 50, and, then, only once every two years, and it, further, stated that women should NOT perform self examinations.  It reached these conclusions despite the fact that 17% of breast cancer deaths in 2006 were among women in their 40s, and many breast cancers have been discovered by women performing self examinations.  So, why has the Federal Government published this study now?

Recommendations from the task force are used as the basis for insurance companies determining what procedures they will pay for.  Adherence is not mandatory, but insurance companies can use the recommendation to reduce the number of mammograms they will pay for.  If insurance companies decline payment for mammograms the result would be thousands less of these procedures performed each year.  And if women cease to perform self examinations, there will be thousands less follow-up procedures.

With the huge pending cost of healthcare reform, the addition of thousands of new patients and the prospect of doctors leaving their practices, rationing is unavoidable.  Despite promises from the President and the Democrats, it, not only, WILL happen, but, with the release of this study, they have begun laying the groundwork for it.  And they didn't even wait until the reform package was passed!

If you don't want your healthcare rationed, you need to let your congressmen and senators know, NOW!*  The House bill has already passed.  If the bill in the Senate passes, there will be a vote on a final package, and healthcare reform will be law, along with the inevitable rationing the Federal Government promised would never happen.

*Enter your zip code in the "Write to Congress" box at the upper right of this page.