Dear Friend,
First I’d like to address the new recommendations recently released by the U.S. Preventative Health Services Task Force (USPSTF) regarding breast cancer screening. Some of my Republican colleagues have decided to take the low road and politicize the task force’s recommendations, claiming that they are somehow setting the stage for rationed care. This is just not true. And as someone who has been a leader throughout my career on the issue of cancer screening – sponsoring the Mammography Quality Standards Act among others – I take personal offense to these claims.
USPSTF is a reputable, independent group of scientists and doctors with no political affiliation. One who tries to link this panel and its findings to the Democrats, the Obama Administration or health insurance reform will come up empty handed. The USPSTF panelists were chosen under the Bush Administration and their guidelines approved 17 months ago – long before the health insurance reform debate began in the 111th Congress.
The Task Force’s recent recommendations, based on in-depth scientific studies, have caused a good deal of controversy - and justifiably so. Many disagree on whether the unnecessary stress, anxiety and treatment resulting from aggressive cancer screening outweighs a slightly smaller percentage of lives saved by the screenings in women age 40-49. But everyone can agree that at the end of the day, screening does save lives and no one knows better than you and your doctor what, when and how preventative and cautionary measures should be taken for your personal health risks.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act will ensure that important decisions such as these remain between patients and their doctors – not insurance companies. It will also give millions of women and men access to regular screenings and preventative care who currently go without. In this way USPSTF’s findings bring to light the fact that health care reform will do the exact opposite of rationing care: it will give better care to more people.
In other news, the Department of Energy (DOE) has approved Michigan’s plan for the State Energy Efficiency Appliance Rebate program. It has awarded our state roughly $9.6 million that will go to individuals and families in the form of a rebate for purchasing energy-efficient appliances. I am pleased to see our state taking advantage of this great program, created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate the economy while reducing household greenhouse gas emissions, which account for almost 20 percent of total U.S. emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
