In recent decades the American Cancer Society had been
recommending that women get mammograms annually after age 40, but
a government task force has now said
that women only need to get them after age 50, and then only
every two years.
The new guidelines were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force, which is a government panel of doctors, scientists,
and medical experts along the lines of the comparative
effectiveness board pushed by President Obama as a way to improve
health care quality and contain costs. But the new mammogram
advice is dividing doctors and triggering pushback from the
American Cancer Society, and ultimately causing more confusion
among women. This is just a sign of things to come if Democrats
get their way and begin to issue more findings on a wider range
of medical treatments. And it can only be made worse if future
lawmakers decide to require government programs, or policies
offered through the government-run exchange, to adopt the panel's
recommendations. While the advice would be non-binding according
to current legislation, many policy makers have argued for giving
more power to such a board, including Obama's first choice for
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle.
