The Golden Rule of Mammograms
Remember the recent controversy over recommendations for who should and should not receive mammograms? Christine Harbin of the ShowMe Institute defends the recommendations. When we consider the country as a whole, at some point extra screenings (or indeed, any health service) cost more money than they save.
As many people point out, it’s one thing for “society” to save money, and it’s another thing entirely for you (or your wife, mother, daughter, sister, etc.) to be the one whose cancer wasn’t caught in time because “screening everyone isn’t worth it.”
But decisions based on “what’s good for society” will dictate what health services you receive or don’t receive, as long as funding for health services is channeled through government. (By the way, I think Harbin underestimates the impact of the federal panel; federal recommendations have a way of becoming practice in the private sector.)
Remember the golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
4 Responses to “The Golden Rule of Mammograms”
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I don’t like the “what’s best for society” analysis either, but as Christine points out, people can still get extra mammograms if they pay for them. If the recommendations affect the private sector, it will probably be that insurance companies stop covering them. And going through insurance isn’t the best way to pay for a routine test like a mammogram anyway.
Too often the government tells insurance companies that they have to pay for this and they have to pay for that. If these recommendations mean that the law won’t force insurance to cover yearly mammograms for everyone, I think that’s a good thing.
Thanks for the pingback, John!
I would like to offer one point of clarification. I do believe that a person should be free to get a mammogram or a PSA test at any age in the open marketplace. As an individual who is concerned about her own health, I would certainly want to get screened (but I will pay for it with money in my HSA). I just don’t think that the government should enforce nationwide cancer screening because the data demonstrate that this doesn’t decrease cancer deaths.
Although I didn’t communicate it in my post, I share your concern that private insurance companies could drop coverage of mammograms for women under 50 because it is not recommended. From an economics perspective, I am interested in what is going to happen as a result of the revised guideline.
True enough; it’s not smart to pay for routine services through insurance. I suppose the recommendations could indirectly encourage people to take more initiative for their own health, as in “I don’t care if the insurance doesn’t pay for it, I WILL get that screening.”
Health care, for all the science that goes into it, has a lot of subjectivity due to uncertainty and cost. (It’s like the question of whether you buy another car or repair the one you have, but much more personal.)
It would be best for us all to be more directly involved in making those difficult questions for ourselves, rather than relying on bureaucrats in the private or public sector, or worse yet, politicians.
Unbelievable previous comments. My mother had breast cancer while in her mid to late 30’s and died of metastic bone and brain cancer years later. 16 yrs ago (age 37) a non palpable breast tumor was found by mammogram and I was treated w/surgery, radiation and chemo. I have been getting regular mammograms since my mid 30’s and now 15 months since my last mammogram. I have been diagnosed by early detection type of mammogram with breast cancer once again and will be undergoing surgery shortly. I can’t imagine insurance companies not covering a life saving procedure such as a mammogram. Thanks to this procedure being done I will be able to live longer. This would be descrimination against the poor, less priveleged. Those that can’t afford it won’t be paying for it because they can’t. I would be one of them. I have other health conditions also that I am disabled on Social Security.If government interference prevents this it will be a sad sad day. This makes me very angry.