Mammogram Controversy Highlights Concerns with Rationing Boards in Senate Health Bill

Washington, D.C. –A government task force has recommended womenshould not receive regular mammograms until they are 50. Is that a sign ofthings to come? U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). said people should be asking thatquestion as Congress considers health care legislation that gives bureaucrats thepower to determine which treatments and procedures patients can and cannot receive.“Congress should not pass a health care reform bill that denies you the right toreceive the medical procedure or treatment that you and your doctor agree is right foryou. No bureaucrat should ever come between you, your family and your doctor,” Enzisaid. “This study even discouraged self-examination. Patients need to listen to theirown doctors and their own common sense.”

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group of doctors andscientists that make voluntary recommendations to the Department of Health andHuman Services (HHS), issued a recommendation yesterday that women age 40-49not receive regular mammograms. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius quickly clarifiedthat the members of the Task Force “do not set federal policy and they don't determinewhat services are covered by the federal government.”

But would they under legislation pending before Congress? Enzi saidlegislation approved on a party-line vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor andPensions (HELP) Committee and endorsed by Secretary Sebelius and PresidentObama would allow HHS to use the Task Force’s recommendations to determinewhich procedures and treatments could be covered under a government-run healthplan – regardless of what a doctor might determine is best for an individual patient.

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