Despite the fact that Medicare has paid for breast cancer screening tests for more than two years, more than 60 percent of eligible older women did not get a mammogram, according to a new study reported in The New England Jour-nal of Medicine.
The study, conducted by Jay Blustein of Columbia University, found that older women who did not have supplemental Medicare insurance or who otherwise had to pay part of the mammogram bill themselves were three times less likely to get the test than women with full private insurance coverage."The numbers are alarming, particularly for those older women who can't afford supplemental coverage," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, which paid for the study. "The end result is a system that forces women without full coverage who are most at risk to choose between being screened for early breast cancer or buying prescription drugs and other essential items."
The study examined 4,110 Medicare beneficiaries in 50 states. Of these, 500 were covered only by Medicare, 476 had Medicare and Medicaid, and 3,134 had private supplemental health insurance.
Blustein said early detection of breast cancer is essential and lifesaving. "Requiring co-payments for preventive medical services," he said, "is an obstacle to effective mass screening."