Preview Of ObamaKennedyDeathCare: Breast Cancer Edition

Meaning, here's how the rationing will start (via Hot Air):

Just six months ago, the U.S Preventive Services Task Force, which works within the Department of Health and Human Services as a "best practice" panel on prevention, sounded a warning signal over a slight decline in annual mammograms among women in their 40s.  In fact, they warned women of this age bracket that they could be risking their lives if they didn't get the annual preventive exam (via HA reader Devil's Advocate):

The downward trend, however slight, has breast cancer experts worried. Mammograms can enable physicians to diagnose the disease at early stages, often before a lump can be felt. "When breast cancer is detected early, it often can be treated before it has a chance to spread in the body and increase the risk of dying from the disease," says Katherine Alley, medical director of the breast health program at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.

The U.S Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts working under the Department of Health and Human Services, recommends that women older than 40 get a mammogram every one to two years. The task force finds the test most helpful for women between ages 50 and 69, for whom it says the evidence is strongest that screening lowers death rates from breast cancer. Other groups, including the American Medical Association, suggest a more rigorous schedule, saying the test should be done every year; insurers often pay for annual tests.

That was six months ago.  Now, the same organization says this:

"We're not saying women shouldn't get screened. Screening does saves lives," said Diana B. Petitti, vice chairman of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which released the recommendations Monday in a paper being published in Tuesday's Annals of Internal Medicine. "But we are recommending against routine screening. There are important and serious negatives or harms that need to be considered carefully."

Several patient advocacy groups and many breast cancer experts welcomed the new guidelines, saying they represent a growing recognition that more testing, exams and treatment are not always beneficial and, in fact, can harm patients. Mammograms produce false-positive results in about 10 percent of cases, causing anxiety and often prompting women to undergo unnecessary follow-up tests, sometimes-disfiguring biopsies and unneeded treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Why the change?

If the administration gets its way, the government will be paying for a lot more of these exams when ObamaCare passes.  That will put a serious strain on resources, especially since many of the providers will look to avoid dealing with government-managed care and its poor compensation rates.

The motivation for HHS will be to cut costs, not to save lives.  The sudden reversal in six months of the USPSTF, especially after it made such a stink over a relatively minor decline in screening, certainly makes it appear that they have other priorities than life-saving in mind here.

And here's the logical conclusion:

Barack Obama predicated his ObamaCare vision on the notion that increased prevention would save costs.  Suddenly, his administration is for decreased screening and prevention.  Could that have anything to do with the CBO scoring on screening?  And what does that say about how government will make decisions once they control the compensation and care in the US?

Bingo.  As if a simple look at every socialized/universal health care system around the world isn't enough to prove everything we oppose about it, we can already see the beginning of rationing with just the prospect of it passing.  If this health care 'reform' does become law, it will literally kill people, perhaps starting with millions of women who don't catch breast cancer through routine exams.

There's my two cents.