October 12, 2011
The NYT had a short piece commenting on and correcting some of the statements made by the Republican presidential nominees in last night’s debate. One of the items was a complaint by Newt Gingrich that a government task force had recommended that Medicare and private insurers stop paying for routine prostate cancer tests, where there is no reason to believe that a patient has cancer. The piece notes that, contrary to Gingrich’s claims, the task force was comprised of medical professionals and made its recommendation based on evidence that testing often led to pointless procedures and did not reduce the risk of cancer.
It would have been worth adding that nothing that this task force recommended would have done anything to prevent people from paying for tests out of their own pockets, if they felt the tests were worthwhile. This is also relevant in the context of Gingrich’s endorsement of Sarah Palin’s charge that Obamacare would set up death panels, since there are some medical procedures that are considered of little medical value that Medicare may not pay for.
In no circumstance would anything being proposed or considered by the Obama administration prevent any patient from getting any care that they were prepared to pay for out of their own pocket. This means that if Gingrich and Palin are troubled by the administration’s actions, then it is because they want taxpayers to be forced to pay for medical care that experts consider wasteful.
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