Comments on: How the mammogram and Pap smear debates ignore the uninsured

By: ninguem

ninguem — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:31:11 +0000

PAP smears and mammograms are offered free or sliding scale payment at every county health department everywhere I’ve ever practiced. Big cities and rural areas.

When I have uninsured patients I send them there, as I can forego my own fee, and I do for such patients, but I can’t control what a laboratory does, or what a mammography facility charges.

By: Insured

Insured — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:01:48 +0000

I have had to forgo care due to cost. I comfort myself by thoughts of suicide when the pain gets too bad.

Once you get treatment for a medical problem, you run the risk of being uninsurable.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:59:24 +0000

It looks like a mammogram costs about $80-$212 and a Pap smear costs about $50-$200, if estimates from the web are to be trusted.

But how much additional cost goes into the system due to all of the bureaucratic work with respect to using insurance for that amount of money?

I recently had a patient who refused a mammogram because she feared that if anything was found she would become uninsurable.

This might well be a more significant factor in the non-use of screening tests.