Just Shut Up and Die Cheap

Shut up and die cheap! Mickey Kaus channels Instapundit on the new push against early cancer screening:

Many people are concerned that the new “science” that has led to a sudden about-face on testing, coincident with the passage of ObamaCare, is driven by costs rather than patient welfare. This may be unfair, but one of the hazards of politicizing the health care system is that suspicions of, well, politicization of the health care system become unavoidable.

The timing does seem a little Nobel Peace Prizish, doesn’t it? Everybody’s still doing their part to help out! …

P.S.: Note that that New York Times’ Kolata admits cost concerns are driving some of the new anti-screening efforts. In one case, we’re told not to get PSA tests for prostate cancer because its cost-effectiveness ”does not compare favorably with competing health care priorities.” Those wouldn’t be competing liberal health care priorities, would they? Preventive efforts with a vague payoff? Psychological counseling? Drug treatment? WIC programs? It may be small comfort to people who aren’t getting PSA tests that “competing health care priorities’ were being funded. …

P.P.S.: Why do we assume there is a fixed pot of health care money? Maybe if more people beat cancer they’d be willing to fork over more to pay for other “priorities.”…

P.P.P.S.: If Head Start were subjected to the rigorous cost-benefit analysis that life-saving cancer tests like PSA are now getting, would it survive? …

P.P.P.P.S.: If studies count the anxiety of knowing you have a cancer, do they also count the anxiety of not knowing whether you have a cancer because you haven’t been cleared by the PSA test, or a mammogram? …

More later. This argument is just heating up. If the cost-benefit experts think they will be deferred to by voters, they are in for a rude surprise. Everyone knows a handful of people who were saved by early detection. …

Just had the 10 year check up (it's been a big month for catching up on deferred medical work).  No PSA test.  I think my doc doesn't believe in it.  I don't think money had anything to do with it, but I'm not sure. I have my doubts, too, but as Mickey points out, I know at least one person who firmly believes his life was saved by the PSA test.