On November 19, 2009 the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled "A Breast Cancer Preview", the article revolves around the decision of a government panel’s decision. From the early 1990s to 2002, this same panel, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, has recommended 40 year-old women and older to get their yearly mammograms. Annual mammograms have been used as a screening tool for breast cancer, and the mortality rate tied to breast cancer has dropped 30%. Evidently, this statistic does not seem to trump the fact that if patients under 50 or over 75 without special risk factors no longer get a mammogram the government can save money. How is that possible?

With the great possibility of Health-care Reform being passed, the government is going to do as much as they can to save tax dollars for something "more important". The new Health-care Reform will "make this task force an arbiter of the benefits that private insures will be required to cover as they are converted into government contractors." It may not appear to be such a big deal but "at least 40% of the patient years of live [are] saved by screening …women under 50." These recommendations of the panel will be rule under the Health-care reform, but perhaps that only matters to the women who find out they have breast cancer.

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"A Breast Cancer Preview." The Wall Street Journal. A20. 19 November 2009.

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