I have seen the future and, to use an analogy, remember “Logan’s Run,” the movie and novel in which all citizens were destroyed when they reached the age of 21 in the movie and 31 in the book, or perhaps it was the other way around. In either case, the government decided on your life span.

A member of one of Obama’s Health Councils spoke out, concerning the recent recommendation regarding the use of mammograms in women over the age of 40. As you are probably now aware, this study stated that women no longer need to begin mammograms at 40, but may wait until age 50, and then have them every two years.

The speaker was a registered nurse, who, given her background, should have know better. However, what she expressed was pure “Obamaspeak.” According to this “knowledegable” representative of the Obama administration health care study, early mammograms did not statistically “extend life years.”

“Extended Life Years” – what does this catch phrase mean in terms of you and I? Well, it means that the individual is discounted in favor of the statistical analysis of a large group of his or her peers. For example, if the average life span of a new born American woman is 76 years, then for a random group of 100 women, some will die earlier than 76 and some will die later than 76, but on average, their average life span will be 76. The Obama health council analyzed the use of mammograms as it pertained to the average life span. The study looked at the same group of 100 women, and found that, using data gleaned from hospital records of death by breast cancer and at the number of positive and negative mammograms performed on this group of 100, to determine if statistically, there was a benefit to the “whole.” The study by “Obama – Med” looked at having had a mammogram performed from age 40 to 50, and found that it did not increase the average life span beyond 76 years for the “group as a whole.” Of course, the number 100 is used for purpose of example. The study looked at thousands of such mammograms and results. Nor did having one every year after age 50 increase the average life span beyond 76 years.

What the study did not however address was the outlier woman whose life was saved by an early mammogram. Who is the outlier woman? You are the outlier woman, your mother is the outlier woman, your daughter is the outlier woman as is your aunt, grandmother and the girl next door. If one woman in the 100 was diagnosed with breast cancer, through the use of a mammogram, between the age of 40 and 50, that diagnosis and the saving of her life by appropriate therapy, did not extend the life years of the 100 women “significantly enough” to recommend the study for all women. Therein lies the fallacy of Obama’s health care rationing plan, which none of us has yet suffered from his proposed legislation.

Our current health care system is not population based. It is based on the individual. Do you understand, from a statistical viewpoint, how many humans it takes to diagnose, treat and add years to their lives in order to statistically “extend life years” of the 300 billion Americans? Well, the answer is it takes a great number, and that statistic is the one that Obama and his minions are trying to use to rationalize the future rationing of health care.

Today it is mammograms. Tomorrow it will be PSA testing for Prostate Cancer or CBC’s for leukemia or chest x-rays for early detection of lung cancer. In reality, there is no early testing which can be shown to statistically “extend life years” of the entire population. Yet, it is those very early tests which save individual lives – your individual life.

Thus, it boils down to the individual. If you go to your physician and complain of cough and weight loss, is it not in your best interest to have a chest film? If you complain of fatigue and easy bruising, is it not in your best interest to have a blood test? Are you, as an individual, worth saving? Are your “extended life years” worth the cost to society and in particular to the federal government? I believe they are. If they were not, I would never have become a physician. And yet, health care rationing does not see it this way. That is the reason for long waits for testing in socialized countries. The longer the government waits to test, the fewer people remain alive to test. And therein lies the fallacy of socialized health care.

That concept however has made no impact on the current administration and Congress and the thousands of minions who do the dirty work of those two bodies. Why? Because they do not live under the same laws, regulations and restrictions which they place on the general populace. We are expendable. We are not worthy of those “extended life years” if it means that we shall be costing the federal government those tax dollars we have paid in. And, if such government officials do perchance have to live by the same rules, there is no doubt in my mind that the wealth they have accumulated, at the expense of the taxpayer, will suffice to find them a way out of the tangled system. The cream always rises to the top.

It will not be long before medicare and other insurance companies take these corrupted studies to heart, and begin restricting payment for the testing that you and I now take for granted. It won’t be long before your disease process is viewed in terms of cost and extended life years. It won’t be long before Big Brother determines your life span. When that happens, perhaps we fools will finally understand the Change we voted for in 2008. Perhaps it takes a shock, such as this, to finally open our eyes and make us realize that we have been living a pretty good life after all. Unfortunately, it will also take the early death of a friend or relative to make you understand what freedom and liberty are all about.

JLK