Women: Take Charge of Your Own Breasts!

If there is anyone left out there who questions the motives of the opponents of health reform, they have not paid attention to the latest "guidelines" released yesterday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This is an odiferous case of a secret partnership between this task force and the insurance lobbies if I ever saw one.

There are sixteen members, all physicians, on this task force, but not one oncologist. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm#Members . This same web page explains the process by which the USPSTF arrive at their recommendations. It is not the task force itself that conducts the clinical studies and research underlying their findings. No, instead they contract with an 'Evidence-based Practice Center' (EPC), an entity which apparently operates independently and for profit. Nowhere on the web page is there anything that explains how these EPCs are held to a standard that would prevent them from falling prey to outside influences.

Kathleen Sibelius, Health and Human Services Secretary, was quoted in a Reuters news story today as saying that the task force does not set policy in her department, and that this recommendation is in no way an excuse for insurance companies to refuse to pay for mammograms under the current guidelines. We'll see about that.

In the interim, I suggest that any women reading this blog continue to do their monthly self-examinations and, if they are 40 or older, to go ahead and have those annual mammograms. No scientist, task force or politician can tell me that there is no need to stay on top of my health. Even if today's practices only save a handful of lives each year, it is well worth the time and expense.