Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has joined twenty other U.S. Senators to call on the Senate's health committee to hold hearings to investigate how the government's advisory panel came to its controversial findings. Last week the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force made a recommendation that women between the ages of 40 and 49 should not receive routine mammograms.
"Routine screening and early detection for breast cancer has helped save thousands of women's lives," said Senator Hutchison. "This government task force's recommendation against routine mammograms for women under 50 is a step backwards for American women's health. As we are debating health care reform in the Senate, this should serve as a wake-up call that if the government takes over our health care, it would mark the beginning of rationing of care."
The American Cancer Society notes that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the U.S. And estimates that over 40,000 Americans will die from breast cancer in 2009. Breast cancer screenings and advances in technology have reduced the mortality rate of patients who develop this devastating disease, with early detection being a critical factor.
Sen. Hutchison has been an advocate for breast cancer research. In a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate's Health,Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Senators wrote: These recommendations…could prove devastating for women at risk for breast cancer."
