Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

The editorial board of the New York Times is disingenuous. The board claims that there is no connection between the recent proposal about mammograms and the health-care bills being rushed through Congress. Perhaps I can explain the connection. If the government takes over health care—and everyone knows that the current bills are merely the first step toward achieving this (Barack Obama is on record as saying that he wants a single-payer health-care system in this country)—the government will decree that mammograms before the age of 50 are not cost-effective, and that will be the end of it. Why is this so hard to grasp? We do not need bureaucrats, bean counters, bioethicists, and politicians making health-care decisions. Government needs to stay the hell out of health care.