Costs, Evidence, and Value in the Medicare Program Comment on “The Cost of Breast Cancer Screening in the Medicare Population” Costs, Evidence, and Value in the Medicare Program

Mandelblatt JS, Tosteson AA, van Ravesteyn NT. — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Women who are now 65 years old can expect to live another 20 years, and those aged 75 years will live, on average, for another 13 years based on US life tables. The Medicare program, enacted in 1965, currently provides care to approximately 30 million US women 65 years or older (hereinafter referred to as “older”), and that number is projected to double by 2030 owing to the “graying of America.” Total Medicare spending was $523 billion in 2010 with breast cancer screening accounting for about $1 billion of that total.

JAMA Internal Medicine: Mammography Topic Collection

Costs, Evidence, and Value in the Medicare Program Comment on “The Cost of Breast Cancer Screening in the Medicare Population” Costs, Evidence, and Value in the Medicare Program