New Cancer Screening Guidelines: Why the New Recommendations Aren't the End of Healthcare as We Know It
Just this week, a few more logs were added to the fire that is health care debate in America.
On Monday, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force released a statement revising the recommended guidelines for breast cancer screening. The USPSTF, an influential health panel of top private care-givers in America, now recommends that women begin receiving mammograms at age 50, a change from guidelines released in 2002 stating that women should first receive screenings at age 40[1]. The statement also urges doctors to not teach their patients to self-check themselves for breast cancer, and suggests that women over 50 have mammograms every 2 years, in contrast to the annual screenings recommended in 2002.
Furthermore, on Friday the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released their own revised guidelines concerning cervical cancer screening. The ACOG recommendations, much like the USPSTF guidelines for mammograms, suggest first pap smears take place later age and less frequent testing[2].
Both newly released guidelines cite multiple reasons for the scaling back of frequent cancer testing. Both releases maintain that their new guidelines will minimize potential physical and mental harm that may arise from frequent testing, including false-positive results and unnecessary and discomforting procedures involving potentially harmful radiation.
These new medical guidelines come when healthcare reform in America is at center stage, and is seen by many as no coincidence.
Are these new guidelines just proof that a federally run governmental health care system would scale back preventative care, even for serious illnesses such as breast and cervical cancer?
Although the timing of these announcements couldn't have been worse politically for universal care advocates, there is no justification in saying that new, revised, and less expansive guidelines for health care will be a hallmark of a federally run system.
On Monday, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force released a statement revising the recommended guidelines for breast cancer screening. The USPSTF, an influential health panel of top private care-givers in America, now recommends that women begin receiving mammograms at age 50, a change from guidelines released in 2002 stating that women should first receive screenings at age 40[1]. The statement also urges doctors to not teach their patients to self-check themselves for breast cancer, and suggests that women over 50 have mammograms every 2 years, in contrast to the annual screenings recommended in 2002.
Furthermore, on Friday the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released their own revised guidelines concerning cervical cancer screening. The ACOG recommendations, much like the USPSTF guidelines for mammograms, suggest first pap smears take place later age and less frequent testing[2].
Both newly released guidelines cite multiple reasons for the scaling back of frequent cancer testing. Both releases maintain that their new guidelines will minimize potential physical and mental harm that may arise from frequent testing, including false-positive results and unnecessary and discomforting procedures involving potentially harmful radiation.
These new medical guidelines come when healthcare reform in America is at center stage, and is seen by many as no coincidence.
Are these new guidelines just proof that a federally run governmental health care system would scale back preventative care, even for serious illnesses such as breast and cervical cancer?
Although the timing of these announcements couldn't have been worse politically for universal care advocates, there is no justification in saying that new, revised, and less expansive guidelines for health care will be a hallmark of a federally run system.
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