A Health Care Anecdote
19 November 2009 9:18 pm by Taylor Marsh
updated below
Honest to Christ, forgive me mother, but today I heard Rush Limbaugh making a more impassioned plea for women on the latest assault on women’s health care than I’ve heard from Democrats. That’s how bad this has gotten.
Rush went on and on about this all being about “self defense” and “peace of mind,” just like a security system. You may never need it, but you feel better that you’ve got it and it’s your right to have it. After all, nothing is more fundamental to us all than fighting for our lives, he continued, adding that the feds will have a fight on their hands if they try to stop anyone from saving their own lives.
Then Rush played a clip of Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius where she actually had the unmitigated gall to say, and now I have to paraphrase because I was driving at the time, something to the affect that she’d trust insurance companies to cover mammograms, basically ignoring the new Task Force guidelines, because she’d hope insurance companies would follow doctors.
The Task Force came out defending their recommendations today:
Dr. Timothy Wilt, a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, defended the recommendation that most women don’t need to get mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at age 50. That recommendation runs counter to the American Cancer Society’s long-held stance that women should get a yearly mammogram starting at age 40.
The task force’s recommendations “were based on the most rigorous peer review of up-to-date, accurate information about the evidence about the harms and benefits of treatment,” Wilt said on ABC’s Good Morning America, the Associated Press reported. …
Sebelius responded in this same article saying women should keep doing what they’ve been doing, offering this warm comfort:
She also said she’d be “very surprised if any private insurance company changed its mammography coverage decisions as a result of this action.”
Who else out there would be “very surprised” if private insurance companies went rogue on mammography coverage? Anyone?
On top of that, in their eminent wisdom, Democrats have now decided to add a 5% tax on elective cosmetic surgery. Perfect. You wouldn’t want to take a guess who gets more plastic surgeries? You got it, the gals, not all of whom are rich either. But I guess if you choose to enhance your looks it’s only fair you get an extra tax for your vanity. Feeling the love yet?
…and I still haven’t heard anyone mention Viagra.
UPDATE (11.20): The White House put out a clear message today: Under health insurance reform, this research cannot be used to dictate coverage.
