White House Goes Into Shoot the Messenger Mode: Chastises Fox for Mammogram Rationing Controversy

There was a big controversy yesterday about a report that came out, at the behest of the Department of Health & Human Services, that discouraged women from getting mammograms, a potentially life-saving procedure, after the same organization released a report 6 months before decrying the importance of women over 40 getting mammograms.

Critics claimed that this was the start of healthcare rationing that many were worried about as a government-run system tries to save money.

In vintage Obama style, White House Deputy Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer attacked Fox News, yet again:

White House Deputy Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer blasted critics of the guidelines in a blog posted to the administration's Web site late Tuesday, taking particular aim at an article posted on FoxNews.com.

"One of the hallmark tactics from opponents of health insurance reform has been to grab onto any convenient piece of information and twist it into some misguided attack on reform -- no matter how unrelated it may actually be," wrote Pfeiffer. "Today they're going back to that playbook again, and Fox News obliges them."

The White House lamely tried to spin the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the people that released the recommendation, had no direct power over whether or not Obamacare will cover mammograms for women 40-50.

While this is true, who doesn't think that government bureaucrats will use this as an excuse to cut financial corners. With the national debt and deficit at record numbers, there will be tremendous pressure on those that do have the power to keep costs down.

Republican women, led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, have begun to take a stand on this important women's health issue:

"This is the way rationing, which my colleagues and I have warned about, will begin to enter the market place -- slowly, imperceptibly and lethally," Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn said in an e-mail to FoxNews.com.

Blackburn, of Tennessee, joined other Republican women in Congress on Wednesday to speak out in opposition to guidelines that recommend changing when and how women should be tested for the No. 2 cancer killer in women.

This is just another example of how government-run healthcare is not really any better than the insurance companies, when it comes to the quality of healthcare. The only real difference is the government will be telling you that a potentially life-saving procedure is an "elective" procedure or "too experimental" and refuse to pay for it.