I'm Confused

Here’s a shocker of an article from the New York Times, check it out.

Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings
By GINA KOLATA
Published: NYT, October 20, 2009

The American Cancer Society, which has long been a staunch defender of most cancer screening, is now saying that the benefits of detecting many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been overstated.

It is quietly working on a message, to put on its Web site early next year, to emphasize that screening for breast and prostate cancer and certain other cancers can come with a real risk of overtreating many small cancers while missing cancers that are deadly.

“We don’t want people to panic,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the cancer society. “But I’m admitting that American medicine has overpromised when it comes to screening. The advantages to screening have been exaggerated.”

I have always been told that early detection was the way to go in terms of both detecting cancer and fighting it. But it now seems not to be the case. The article goes on to mention that with early screening, there are a couple of risks involved. First, there is the risk of being over diagnosed. You may have a type of cancer that could go away on its down. Treatment would therefore be both costly in time and money. And then there is the possibility of being under diagnosed. Here cancer is discovered but not necessarily viewed as problematic. A person goes home and then comes back in a few months in worse shape.

Dr. Esserman stated that, “Someone may say, ‘I don’t want to be screened.’” “Another person may say, ‘Of course I want to be screened.’ Just like everything in medicine, there is no free lunch. For every intervention, there are complications and problems.”

As I read this report and all that I have been taught in the past, I quickly went to James 1:6: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” “Should I get screened or shouldn’t I? I’m confused!”

Well, I know of people who have gotten screened early and it saved their lives. I also know of others who have been killed by the cancer treatment itself.

You know what I think may be involved here? With this article (and there will be more like it coming down the pike), we are seeing a preview of what Universal Heathcare will be like. Now we know it will be costly. And if the government is going to cut cost in order to keep the program going, it will have to do so by cutting “services” such as cancer screenings to some degree.

It has been estimated that Universal Heathcare with a public option (and it will have a public option or it will not be universal), will cost well over a trillion dollars, maybe close to two.

Now our total national debt is already approaching 12 trillion. You want to know how much money is a “trillion?”

Here is an example for you. Let’s say that you had your own personal business during the days of Jesus Christ. And your business would remain open 24/7. While it remained open, it lost one million dollars a day – every day. Let’s say that this lost of one million dollars a day continued until the present – some two thousand years later. You would still need to add another 700 years from now on top of the 2000 years, losing one million dollars a day to arrive at one trillion dollars.

Universal healthcare will cost over a trillion dollars. Cost will no doubt have to be cut. And with the cost of healthcare being cut, so will the services. Therefore, cancer screening for early detection. . .well, it’s not all that important, really!

In fact, did you notice the phrase, “It is quietly working on a message. . .?” What does that mean, “quietly?” Could it mean that doctors who made a lot of money by encouraging people to go get early cancer tests and screening whether they needed it or not, will know longer have that luxury. As a result, more people will find themselves with advance stages of cancer and add to the health care system and even greater cost. Thus, Universal Health Care will solve one problem (getting everyone insured) and open up another problem (more cancer related incidents).

Folks, all I am trying to point out is this: These are times to focus your life and vision for the future, not on what Uncle Sam can do for you, but God. These are times to look at preventative ways to become and remain healthy and not wait until it’s too late. These are times to take charge and control over your health and not let someone else do it.

Are you eating rightly? Are you over-eating? Are you exercising? Are you filling your mind with God’s Word? Are you taking personal responsibility by taking care of God’s temple (your body)? If the Lord were to care for you in the same way you care for your body, would you be better off? Just thinking.