Free Republic

<p>While it’s easy to walk into a doctor’s office and leave with a prescription to treat high blood pressure, some physicians don't take the time to address the unhealthy habits that cause these issues in the first place.</p> <p>As high rates of obesity and skyrocketing health costs become an increasing problem in the United States, the American Heart Association (AHA) has published a new report in the journal Circulation, issuing a call for doctors to start treating damaging lifestyle habits as aggressively as they would any other health condition.</p>

President Obama is boast ing that his new health law provides "free" preventive care, such as mammograms and colonoscopies. But when you open your mail, you'll find out that's untrue; all he's doing is making you pay for it in advance. The government isn't going to force you to get a colonoscopy, but being forced to pay for one feels almost the same. Millions of Americans are getting notices that their premiums are going up to pay for changes required under the ObamaCare law. Section 2713 of the law requires that those premiums include the full cost for such preventive...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will change the face of American medicine, based in no small part on a big lie about preventive care. A list of so-called "Preventive Services Covered under the Affordable Care Act" can be found here. To apprehend the folly, it is necessary to understand what is meant by "preventive." "Preventive": Main Entry: 2preventive Function: adjective Date: circa 1626 : devoted to or concerned with prevention :precautionary : as a : designed or serving to prevent the occurrence of disease It is clear that preventive care should "serv[e] to prevent the occurrence of...

What kind of "health-care reform" is this that could make me replace my regular checklist of preventive-care tests for a "don't-check list" of exams I won't be able to order? Much of last week's Senate debate on health reform turned on a single screening exam, mammograms for women in their 40s. A government panel last month said the exams weren't cost effective, and critics quickly pointed to the recommendation as an example of the kind of rationing that would have teeth under ObamaCare.

Health Care: A government task force has decided that women need fewer mammograms and later in life. Shouldn't that be between patient and physician? We have seen the future of health care, and it doesn't work. We have warned repeatedly that the net results of health care bills before Congress will be higher demand, fewer doctors, more cost control, all leading to rationing. New recommendations issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) regarding breast cancer and the necessity for early and frequent mammograms do not convince us otherwise. Just six months ago, the panel, which works under the...

In a sharp change from current policy, an influential medical advisory group is recommending that all men ages 65 to 75 who have ever smoked have an ultrasound screening test to see if they are developing a condition that could kill them in minutes by bursting a major artery in the abdomen. The group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, is an independent panel of medical experts that advises the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Its recommendations help set government policy and are generally followed by primary care doctors. The task force last looked at the condition,...