A few days ago I wrote about my concerns about recent developments in women’s health care, namely the timely detection of breast cancer. Well, I wasn’t the only person who felt that way. In fact, the United States Preventive Services Task Force study released on Monday has set off a response that can only be described by one word: outrage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCNl77p1WhE
From Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to thousands of women and doctors across the country, women whose diagnostic screenings in their 40s helped save their lives after timely diagnosing them with breast cancer have one message to convey: they are people, not statistics.
As the administration distances itself from the Task Force study, one thing is clear, nobody wants the Task Force’s findings to affect insurance coverage of preventive medicine. If a woman, like my wife whose baseline mammogram at age 40 detected breast cancer at an early stage, wants to utilize sound and reasonable preventive health practices, that decision should not be taken away. While our treatment for breast cancer has improved over the decades, there’s no dispute over the benefit of early detection of breast cancer.
