The Cellar - My letter to the editor in reply to my Senator's article got published!

My Texas Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison recently wrote a dopey column in my local paper that that started out casting doubt on the decision by the US Preventive Services Task Force against men not in high risk groups having the PSA as part of an annual exam and then linked it to why we need to repeal Obamacare. So I sent in a reply letter to the editor and got published. Thank goodness she will be gone in just a few months!

*****

Dear Editor:

After reading Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's recent feature editorial, “Fearing For The Future Of American Medicine” November's election and a new Senator representing us can't come soon enough! The Senator opens with a fond memories of her grandfather's country medical practice, a time when as she remembers, “he knew his patients and his patients knew him.” Rosy memories aside, the most we could expect for asthma at that time was a vaporizer with Vicks Vapor Rub in the water and for heart disease there was only nitroglycerine pills. Times were simpler and so were the medical remedies available and often the outcome for patients were not so rosy.

She then goes on to state that “Government is increasingly inserting itself between doctor and patient, making more and more of our medical decisions for us.” When I read that I wondered if the Senator was referring to the recent bill signed into law in Texas that mandates an unnecessary and intrusive ultrasound for women who have made the difficult decision to have an abortion? Or the bills in other states that are similar or even worse at restricting legal abortions and are roundly criticized by doctors across the nation and by their professional organization, the AMA which characterizes these laws as a direct wedge between the patient and doctor relationship. I also wondered if she was referring to the nationwide GOP led attack on women by defunding programs for low income women to get screening through the services of Planned Parenthood on the false claim that they are a major provider of abortion services when in fact the abortion services account for less than 3% of their activities!

But no, the Senator goes on to tie government intrusion to the recent recommendation by the US Preventive Services Task Force that men under 75 years of age and NOT in higher risk groups no longer get the annual blood test known as PSA. She would have us believe that this is what we have all feared, a group of government bureaucrats making recommendations and decisions that effect us all. But wait a minute... the USPSTF is made up of 16 volunteer members who come from the fields of preventive medicine and primary care, including internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, behavioral health, obstetrics/gynecology, and nursing. And they are nominated and voted on by their peers and must have no financial connections or obligations to outside forces such as pharmaceutical companies or the health insurance industry. Had the USPSTF existed prior to 1984 her grandfather sounds like he would have made a good nominee! And the Senator goes on to claim that while the PSA test is not perfect it is the best available and should be continued even though at best, one life will be saved for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period! "There is a small potential benefit and a significant known harm," said Dr. Virginia A. Moyer, a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, chairwoman of the task force. The PSA test, she said, "should not be part of your checkup." I can remember my own father having 12 needle biopsies after a questionable PSA test at age 84 and having to go on expensive injections to lower his testosterone with many side effects for the remainder of his life. He died at age 93 of a cerebral stroke and I doubt his prostate had any role in that!

And then the Senator casts the awful specter of Obamacare and how after the mandates kick in a near death sentence will be given to all men because of this USPSTF recommendation! Sounds similar to the GOP claims that so called “Death Panels” would decide if grandma would get healthcare or not which was a total hoax! For all of her carping about government regulations she seems to skip over the fact that before the Affordable Healthcare Act was signed into law countless numbers of patients were refused treatments by their own private insurance companies for bizarre reasons written in fine print and that thousands of Americans could not even get insurance because of pre-existing conditions!

The Senator is right to fear for the future of American Medicine and it's delivery to the American people most especially of if The Affordable Care Act is either overturned by future Congresses or by the Supreme Court.