Congress may soon want to know why a federal task force recently reversed course, recommending that women between 40 and 49 no longer need annual mammograms.
A bi-partisan group of 22 senators, including Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, are demanding hearings to investigate why the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued the controversial recommendation on such a widely supported test.
"I don't understand why there would be such a jump shift," Hutchison said. "Every person in the medical community that I have talked to has totally denounced that."
For Hutchison, it's also good politics because she claims such a recommendation could lead to the rationing of health care, especially under the Democratic bill the Senate will debate.
Democrats dismiss that accusation as unfounded.
The task force concluded that undergoing mammograms so early for most women leads to too many false alarms and unneeded additional tests without greatly improving the odds of survival.
The American Cancer Society calls the findings wrong.
The senators called them devastating.
"Just the task force recommendation has caused massive confusion, so I think hearings might be able to sort this out," Hutchison said. "What's behind it? What I see behind it is cost."
Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in women, with 40,000 Americans expected to die of breast cancer this year.
High profile hearings, these senators hope, will persuade women in their 40s not to change their minds about annual screening.
Hutchison has long been a supporter of breast cancer research. She lobbied for the breast cancer research stamp, which raised $59 million. She also co-sponsored a bill extending funding for a national early-detection program for breast and cervical cancer.
