Sebelius says Ignore Mammogram Rec, GOP Attacks Health Reform Bill

I pretty much ignore all of these government recommendations. The government has yet to recommend elderberry as a recommended way of defeating the flu. Why, well no drug companies make money off elderberry, and we all know that a portion of “big government” is in bed with the drug companies.

Yes, get used to it. We, the paying, working, AMERICAN PUBLIC, will now have to make many, many sacrifices to pay the healthcare of the NON WORKING, NON AMERICAN people living in the country either legally, or illegally.
Thanks Obama….your just swell. What are you and your family giving up for this noble cause?

George wrote:
“The U.S. Preventive Task Force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations. They do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government,” said Sebelius in a written statement.
True enough, but the lawmakers who want to wedge themselves into the healthcare decisions of millions of Americans have little choice but to defer to “outside independent panel of doctors and scientists” to shape their legislation.
Don’t worry, this administration won’t listen to the advice of independent doctors and scientists, that would be silly…

As an MD I can assure you that the US Preventive Task Force recommendations are based on solid evidence and good care principles and form the basis for all the screening tests we do. These comments are the most uninformed, biased drivel that almost guarantee the continuation of second rate, horrendously expensive care in the US if they are allowed to prevail. Too bad there isn’t a screening test for distrustful paranoia…then you could get your insurance to cover that condition.

“HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, meanwhile, told women to ignore the new advisory recommendations for now.”
*****
For now? Does she mean until AFTER government run healthcare passes? It sounds like the same thing we are getting from the White House. “Don’t worry about all the money we are spending…for now.” You will pay though.
I am glad the press is FINALLY reporting on a few things that are happening in this administration.

As an MD I can assure you that the US Preventive Task Force recommendations are based on solid evidence and good care principles and form the basis for all the screening tests we do. These comments are the most uninformed, biased drivel that almost guarantee the continuation of second rate, horrendously expensive care in the US if they are allowed to prevail. Too bad there isn’t a screening test for distrustful paranoia…then you could get your insurance to cover that condition.
Posted by: philip | Nov 18, 2009 3:11:54 PM
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Gee, isn’t it great that on the internet you can be anything you want to be, without ever having to prove it?
What you really sound like is a mad democrat. Is that what the MD stands for?

jhw539 – “First off, it is a lie to say that only 8 million citizens do not have health insurance. That is not supported by any of the research available.” — Frankly I tire of your diatribes hw, but in this case your statement does have some merit. 8-10 million is a lowball figure. IF you use the 2008 census bureau figures, the total number of uninsured is 47 million.. or about 15% of the population. But what is interesting is that when you factor in the 12 million who make less than 25K per year and are eligible for medicaid assistance (the government healthcare system that we already have in place), the number drops to 30 million. When you consider the 9 million who make above 75k but below 250k per year (those who in all probability could afford at least a decent catastrophic plan if they were to set aside income to get it) the number drops to 21 million. Then when you add the 3 million additional uninsured who make 250K and up and can finance their own healthcare needs in most cases without insurance, the number of actual US citizens who “fall through the cracks” is about 18-20 million. This represents about 6-7% of the population.
While this number is considerably above the 8-10 that was posted earlier, it still represents only about 6 to 7 percent of the population as being uninsured with no opportunity for insurance.
My question is this, – If the government plan now before congress will cost 1.2 to 1.6 trillion over the next 10 years and will insure about 25 million additonal americans (WH numbers from the GAO) why wouldn’t we just provide insurance premiums for the 20 million chronically uninsured instead. By my figures, doing this would cost about 100 to 150 billion per year and would be just as cheap as the current healthcare bill but would not affect the coverage of those who currently have good plans in any way… Why wouldn’t we do that instead?? Oh yeah, because if we did, the current administration would not gain control of 1/6 of our economy and would not be able to control more of our lives.. we can’t have that now can we???
As to your other statement -”Most other first world nations have longer life expectancies than Americans. Why do you think that is? Just because they tend to smoke more or something? Or because the US is some wild west gunslingers paradise” — Several reasons play to this, first and formost, we have a higher incident of adult obesity, heart disease, and diabetes than any other country due to the “fast food lifestyle” second, violent offense related deaths in this country are among the highest in the world, and third, data collection from country to country often makes comparisons less accurate, for example, many countries do not consider third trimester miscarriages in their death rates, but we do. infant mortality is not counted against the average life expectancy in some data collection, but it is in the US. In some countries, violent crime deaths are excluded, but not here..
As with most of your post, your FACTS don’t hold up…

====================
Obama is floating a balloon on the coming policies in their healthcare bill :
* reduce preventative testing (reap the healthcare savings)
* allow patients to develop life treatening conditions
* allow Relative Effectiveness Research to determine their condition is too serious to be worth the money for treatment
* deny treatment (reap even more healthcare savings)
====================

THIS PANEL DID NOT COME UP WITH THESE RECOMMENDATIONS IN 11 MONTHS – IT TOOK THEM YEARS – YEARS!!!! STOP BLAMING OBAMA AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND FIND OUT WHO IS ON THE PANEL AND WHO DO THEY WORK FOR. DEATH PANELS EXIST ALREADY – THEY ARE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES AND THE WASHINGTON LEGISLATORS IN THEIR POCKETS (BOTH GOP AND SOME DEMOCRATS)!!!! WHEN PRIVATE COMPANIES AND LEGISLATORS PUT CORPORATE PROFIT BEFORE SICK, UNINSURED AMERICANS – THEY BECOME DEATH-SQUADS.

Members of the USPSTF:
The USPSTF comprises primary care clinicians (e.g., internists, pediatricians, family physicians, gynecologists/obstetricians, and nurses). Individual members’ interests include: decision modeling and evaluation; effectiveness in clinical preventive medicine; clinical epidemiology; the prevention of high-risk behaviors in adolescents; geriatrics; and the prevention of disability in the elderly.
Current members of the Task Force are listed below. They have recognized expertise in prevention, evidence-based medicine, and primary care.
Bruce N. Calonge, M.D., M.P.H. (Chair)
Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver, CO
Diana B. Petitti, M.D., M.P.H. (Vice Chair)
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Fulton School of Engineering
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Susan Curry, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Public Health
Distinguished Professor
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Allen J. Dietrich, M.D.
Professor, Community and Family Medicine
Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH
Thomas G. DeWitt, M.D.
Carl Weihl Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Division of General and Community Pediatrics
Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
Kimberly D. Gregory, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Women’s Health Services Research
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
David Grossman, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director, Preventive Care and Senior Investigator, Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative
Professor of Health Services and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
George Isham, M.D., M.S.
Medical Director and Chief Health Officer
HealthPartners, Minneapolis, MN
Michael L. LeFevre, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO
Rosanne Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D
Professor, Geriatrics and Adult Development, Medicine, Health Policy
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Lucy N. Marion, Ph.D., R.N.
Dean and Professor, School of Nursing
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA
Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Associate Director, Center for Healthcare Policy and Research
University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA
Bernadette Melnyk, Ph.D., R.N., C.P.N.P./N.P.P.
Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
Wanda Nicholson, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
J. Sanford (Sandy) Schwartz, M.D.
Leon Hess Professor of Medicine, Health Management, and Economics
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton School, Philadelphia, PA
Timothy Wilt, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Department of Medicine, Minneapolis VA Medical Center
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

What has happened to us? All agree our president is the smartest one we have ever had – his IQ may be bigger than Einstein’s. And he has appointed the bestest and the brightest of the old Clinton government including Hillary herself. Yet it is one large mess after the other, to where even the big medias don’t believe anything anymore.
I am thinking that Palin and a bunch of her moose hunting friends could do better.

NOT LONG AGO THIS VERY SAME PANEL STRONGLY RECOMMENDED MAMMOGRAMS FOR THOSE FORTY AND ABOVE. WHY THE CHANGE? THIS PANEL SERVES AT THE PLEASURE OF THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESIDENT IS NOW OBAMA. DUH!!!

Ya, and men don’t need colonoscopies until they’re 50 yrs old. I’m 48 and I have Stage 4 Colo-Rectal cancer that could have been prevented if my insurance company allowed for colonoscopies to be done earlier. I don’t need a death panel to advise me on this one–or a government that is resoponsible for the cancer (currently in denial) telling me it’s okay to wait. I waited because I didn’t have the money for healthcare and my insurance was terrible. You can’t fix STUPID with legislation–we have to vote them out of office.

“NOT LONG AGO THIS VERY SAME PANEL STRONGLY RECOMMENDED MAMMOGRAMS FOR THOSE FORTY AND ABOVE. WHY THE CHANGE? THIS PANEL SERVES AT THE PLEASURE OF THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESIDENT IS NOW OBAMA.”
No. It did not. You can easily find the 2002 recommendations on the web. And, incidentally, this research began under the Bush administration, who also set up the panel members.

I just love the wing-nuts. They parrot Republican talking points even tho they get it wrong. This so-called government panel was appointed by former President George W. Bush! It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Obama Administration or its health care policies. The shrill Republican congresswomen run out screaming about “health care panels” and how government will cut your insurance benefits without any facts to back up their assertions. And the Republican followers, as usual, run pell mell into the fray like lemmings.
Calm down folks and try thinking before you hurl your propaganda………..

Melanie:
Plesae take a close look at the list of doctors on the taskforce. Not one of them is an oncologist.
I’m surprised no one has mention the survival rate of american woman verses european woman recieving national health care. The united states currently has the best health care for woman with breast cancer. Why mess with it?

Yukon and Melanie: doesn’t it seem a bit ironic that these “recommendations” come out just as the healthcare bill is under scrutiny, or lack thereof. Doesn’t it also strike you as peculiar that after years and years of medical advice telling women to get early and frequent mammograms women should now hold off on getting them? It’s all fishy, and I don’t care where you got this list of “experts”. I don’t believe they or their recommendations are valid.
Chai

The task force was started in 1984 and is an independent private sector group.

THANK YOU KS FOR POINTING OUT THAT THE PANEL USED GLOBAL STATISTICS IN FORMING THEIR RECOMMENDATION. IN THE USA BREAST CANCER IN AN EPIDEMIC. IN OTHER COUNTRIES BREAST CANCER IS RARE. I WORK AS A MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONIST AND CAN TELL YOU THAT EVERY WEEK AT LEAST A FEW WOMEN IN THEIR 40S HAVE BREAST CANCER DETECTED THROUGH SCREENING MAMMOGRAMS JUST AT OUR FACILITY. THE PANEL IS WRONG – SCREENING MAMMOGRAMS DO DETECT CANCERS EARLIER – BEFORE LUMPS – AND SAVING LIVES IS WHAT MEDICINE IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALL ABOUT.

My sister has had breast cancer twice, once in her early 40′s and once in her mid 50′s. Both times, a mamogram found the small beginning cancer in her breast. She might have died years ago if the new recommendations had been followed back then. However, I do agree that there are a lot of unnecessary tests and procedures done by physicians to patients to cover any lawsuits that might occur.
Our problem is not Obama, physicians, politicians…it is the FAT CAT insurance and drug industries that have run our healthcare system for years now.
I know it sounds simplistic, but can we all just grow up, listen a little, have some patience with each other, and try to make all our lives better? I get so frustrated by so many angry people who want to blame everything on Obama.

to Jeff 200 -
Think about it he may have employed as you say the “bestest”, but forgot to connsider all of those EGOS.

It was T.S. Wiley, who wrote Sex, Lies, and Menopause, (Harper Collins) warned women six years ago about the dangers of mammography. They devoted one entire chapter to mammograms and breast cancer. This recent news from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) — recommendations that women get mammograms every one or two years starting at 40, now recommending biennial screening mammography for women aged 50 to 74 years — is not surprise a to Wiley.
Quoting from her book, Chapter 5, p. 97, Wiley stated, “Using X-rays to see abnormalities in breast tissue had been around since 1913, but had never really become a diagnostic tool until the mid-1970s. When a pinpoint lesion appears in your breast, there may already be cancer cells multiplying in the shin of your leg, in your bone marrow. The pin-point size lesion that a mammogram picks up is only a symptom of what’s happening elsewhere in your body.”
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel of doctors and scientists, concluded that such early and frequent screenings often lead to false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women’s odds of survival.
The book also stated, “The other problem with mammography is obvious: Science only knows of one absolute carcinogen to human tissue on the planet, and that carcinogen is ionizing radiation. If the exposed cells don’t die, the DNA breaks and they mutate. Cancer rarely starts with a mutated gene; but a gene certainly can be mutated by an outside-the-body influence like the ionizing radiation of power lines or mammography. Mammography is ionizing radiation.”

You should all realize that everything costs money, and that for every dollar spend on mammography, one dollar is not spent somewhere else. I have no opinion about when we should start screening–because that job should belong to the scientists. But we cannot avoid the basic economics of the situation. We cannot have every service we want, as unpopular as that is. Someday, economics, not the government, will force people to decide which services they want.

How efficient!! Obama said that he will cut out “unnecessary procedures” to save money – mammograms under the age of 50 are now considered “unnecessary procedures” ..also Pap tests arent necessary under the age of 21 – how convenient!!!! Pretty soon, nothing is covered!!!!