"soon you will not be able to get your hands on a good leech when you need one."

[Are_grits_groceries]

The Breast Brouhaha
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The task report said that the jury is still out on whether doctors should do the examinations themselves, but my general impression is that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force feels that younger women should not let anybody near their breasts unless the plan is to have sex.

The report triggered two immediate and inevitable responses. Doctors and patients began an animated discussion. And Republicans declared it was all a Democratic plot.

“I mean, let the rationing begin. This is what happens when bureaucrats make your health care decisions,” said Representative David Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Representative Camp is definitely on to something. Whatever happens, we do not want the government conducting any studies on whether current health practices actually do any good. Let this continue and soon you will not be able to get your hands on a good leech when you need one.
<snip>
Every rational American wants qualified experts to keep re-examining current medical practices. The only thing that bothers me about the mammogram report is all the emphasis on the “anxiety” that might follow a false-positive. We live in a time when we are constantly being reminded that a fellow plane passenger might be trying to smuggle explosives in his sneakers. We can manage anxiety.
<snip>
It turned out to be cancer, of a fairly low-grade variety. My oncologist felt strongly that it never would have developed if I hadn’t taken estrogen replacement therapy — another one of the medical marvels that has now been consigned to the Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time category.

So, in summary, the cutting-edge of medical thinking of the 1990s may have induced my cancer, and then the universally recommended testing protocol failed to detect it.

Nevertheless, everything seemed to work out fine, except that I had to have radiation while I was covering the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. In retrospect, it is possible that my attitude toward the Bush-Cheney ticket was colored by the fact that I was thinking a lot about mortal danger at the time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/opinion/19collins.html?ref=opinion

Gail Collins writes the driest snark I've read. I may not always agree with her, but she makes me laugh and hits the nail on the head a lot of times.