The Healthcare Fight

Could breast cancer survivors be a strong and as-yet-untapped ally in the fight to stop socialized medicine?

Some of those solutions are already the order of the day in that single-payer paradise, Britain, whose National Health Service doesn't even provide for annual screening mammograms -- something U.S. physicians strongly recommend to detect and treat breast cancer before it becomes virulent. The National Health Service allows mammograms only every three years, and then only for women between 50 and 70. The service's guidelines recognize that risk rises with age, but women over 70 must nevertheless explicitly ask to continue having the triennial scans -- a not-so-subtle way of discouraging the screening.

Early screening, of course, has saved millions of lives and will continue to do so until it isn't allowed. Why would we want to give that up? And don't expect this to be limited to necessary exams for women, either.

This comes from a L.A. Times opinion piece that provides a very good articulation of what "comparative effectiveness research" really means and the possible implications of proposed legislation. Read it and know what we're looking at.

Good to know that we have a president who will offer us the moon and the stars - but not a hip replacement for his grandmother.