California Government Ends Mammogram Subsidies For Women Under 50

The Obama administration has told us to ignore the directions of a government panel advising no at-home self screenings for breast cancer and no screenings for women under 50, but it looks like at least one government health care service is listening.

The eligibility age for state-subsidized breast cancer screening has been raised from 40 to 50 by the California Health and Human Services Agency, which will also temporarily stop enrollment in the breast cancer screening program.
Advocates for low-income women, whose health care the department helps pay for, say the cuts put a two-tier system in place that is based on money rather than medical standards.
The cuts will greatly harm the clinic’s mammogram program, said Natasha Riley, manager of Vista Community Clinic’s Breast Health Outreach and Education Program.
The clinic and others like it in San Diego County provide reduced-cost care, mostly to low-income people, with money from the state and some private donations.
“More than 50 percent of the women we give breast exams and mammograms to are in their 40s,” Riley said. “The majority of our current breast cancer survivors are women in their 40s.”
The state’s decision, announced Dec. 1 and effective Jan. 1, follows a controversial federal recommendation last month that mammograms before the age of 50 are generally not needed.

This is the problem with being dependent on government for health care. When you aren’t paying for health care yourself you’re vulnerable to the whims of others who usually make decisions not in your best interest but in theirs.
And remember: Democrats are angling to make us all dependent on government-controlled health care. The Democrat health care bill creates health care exchanges that we will all be forced to buy our health insurance through. And in order to qualify for those exchanges, privately-offered health insurance policies must meet government coverage requirements.
If the government decides those policies shouldn’t cover mammograms for women under 50 then they won’t.
Hope this bill gets killed.