Medicare Free Exam

If Obamacare is good enough for the president it should be good enough for you as well, right? 

A Medicare free exam is available to seniors. Your complete Guide to Medicare Preventive Services is available by clicking this link. If you read the booklet you will notice colorectal cancer screening is included as part of your Medicare free exam.

Covered expenses include:

• Fecal Occult Blood Test—Once every 12 months. 
• Flexible Sigmoidoscopy—Once every 48 months after the last flexible 
sigmoidoscopy or barium enema; or 120 months after a previous screening 
colonoscopy.
• Screening Colonoscopy—Once every 120 months (high risk every 24 
months) or 48 months after a previous flexible sigmoidoscopy.
• Barium Enema—Once every 48 months (high risk every 24 months) when 
used instead of sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.

What you won't see is a CTC (CT colonography) also known as a virtual colonoscopy.

In a recent speech to supporters he proudly mentioned that he has taken advantage of the "free" exam that is included in Obamacare.

In his routine physicals, for example, he has taken advantage of a state-of the art test shown by studies to be effective at detecting early colon cancer without exposing the patient to the potential risks associated with traditional colonoscopy: "President Obama, in his first routine physical exam as commander in chief, received a CT colonography (CTC), commonly known as a virtual colonoscopy, to screen him for colorectal cancer." A good call by Obama and his doctors. Unfortunately for Medicare patients, his HHS apparatchiks have decreed that Medicare patients will not enjoy the same quality of care.

So why does the president get a free CTC but Medicare patients are not entitled to the same procedure?

In 2009, the government's health care bureaucrats decided, "The evidence is inadequate to conclude that CT colonography is an appropriate colorectal cancer screening test." Somehow, though, the evidence was convincing enough for the President's doctors to recommend it. And the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society said at the time, "Virtual colonoscopy, or CT colonography, ought to be available as one of several options for colon cancer screening." So, if it's good enough for the leader of the free world, why isn't it good enough for Medicare patients? Well, one reason involved a concern "that costs would increase…"

Take a moment to consider that. The President of the United States, a public servant paid by the taxpayers, followed the advice of his taxpayer-paid doctors that he should have a taxpayer-paid CTC. Yet his health care commissars, also paid by taxpayers, have decreed that that it is too expensive to provide this very test to actual taxpayers when they retire and sign up for the Medicare program for which they have been paying all their working lives. This perverse system, it should be remembered, is not merely presided over but taken advantage of by a man who incessantly lectures these very taxpayers about "fairness."

Seniors concerned about their health, seeking to take advantage of the Medicare free exam are getting short changed. A president that freely spends money on public works projects suddenly seems concerned about costs when it comes to our senior population.

You might also find a Forbes article titled "Is President Obama's Prostate Gland More Important Than Yours?" worth reading. Pay special attention to the USPSTF (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force).

ObamaCare empowers the government U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to determine which preventive health services are medically appropriate. This is the same agency that aroused enormous controversy in 2009 when it proposed restricting screening mammograms to women over age 50 (and only every 2 years), despite the proven benefits of annual mammograms beginning at age 40. (Under pressure, Secretary of Health Sebelius later backpedalled from those guidelines, declaring them non-binding.)

This year, the USPSTF aroused similar controversy by giving a “D” grade (“not recommended”) to routine PSA prostate cancer screening.

Obamacare is touted as a wonderful law that provides a number of free services . . . unless those services might be life saving. 

Makes you wonder what else you are missing with your Medicare free exam.