People are Stupid, Part 1

Last night, I learned that a woman who HAD CANCER that was detected by a mammogram at the age of 42 went and canceled her surgery to remove the cancer because of the new guidelines. At 42, this woman may have already had children, so when she dies, she won't be able to get a Darwin award, but she certainly deserves one. This is the concern - that stupid people will be stupid and do shit like this. Frankly, I could not care less about stupid people who ignore diagnosed problems. I think a lot of energy is lost trying to help people who are demonstrating no desire to help themselves (the cost issue has been ignored in this case, on my part, but the fact that cost is a factor in having life saving procedures is the fault of our shitty system anyway).

Then there are the emotional outbursts from people who think that the guidelines would work as restrictions and no woman under 50 would be able to get a mammogram. These people are idiots. The guidelines clearly state that this is ONLY the case for women who are not otherwise deemed to be at high risk for breast cancer. I understand the concern that this may mean that health insurance providers may stop paying for these screenings, which, when done correctly, save lives. Republicans are using this as a political football too, even though they have demonstrated that they have no problems with cutting off funding for procedures that save women's lives. But the problem with that argument is that the fault there lies with the ruthless tactics of the health insurance industry, not with well reasoned guidelines.

I can't emphasize that word enough - guidelines. Furthermore, these are guidelines for women who are not otherwise at high risk. Paranoid women and women with an ancestral history of breast cancer can get their damn mammograms every year, every 6 months if they really want it. However, had nobody ever come out and said that women under 50 need to have this done, we wouldn't be in this situation. I'm just glad that the paranoia didn't reach a point where they started proclaiming that women get mammograms in their 30's. After all, I do know women who have had breast cancer that early too.

[sarcasm]And lets not even try to think of better cancer screening procedures while we continue to post x-rays of women's breasts on the nightly news all the time, we're saving lives by barbarically smashing body parts and then posting them to the public![/sarcasm]