Welcome to the Conspiracy to Ration Mammograms

Don't you dare deny us unnecessary tests!
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2009 9:28 AM CST
Welcome to the Conspiracy to Ration Mammograms
Michele Bachmann, center, flanked by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Marsha Blackburn, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill, to discuss the new mammogram guidelines.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republicans are right: the new government guidelines urging women not to have mammograms in their 40s are definitely a nefarious conspiracy to start rationing care. “Whatever happens, we do not want the government conducting any studies on whether current health practices actually do any good,” writes Gail Collins in the New York Times. “Let this continue, and soon you will not be able to get your hands on a good leech when you need one.”

Collins is, of course, actually supporting the report, except for the suggestion that what's wrong with all those false positives in mammograms is the anxiety they cause. We can handle anxiety, she observes. “I am going out on a limb to say that the real problem with a false-positive… is that it leads to a lot of other medical procedures.” Collins, by the way, is a breast cancer survivor. She found the lump during a self-examination; her annual mammogram missed it. (More Gail Collins stories.)

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