We can pay now or we can pay much more later if we do not cover preventive service.

FORBES: Marguerite W. Kondracke

The health law effectively ignores that recommendation, making mammograms a covered preventive service at age 40 under the law.

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Last year, more than 34 million seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare used at least one free preventive service, such as mammograms and cholesterol screenings.

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Under the requirement, most employers, including faith-affiliated hospitals and nonprofits, have to provide health insurance that includes artificial contraception, including sterilization, as a free preventive service.

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Nearly 71 million Americans got expanded access to preventive service at no charge through their private insurance plans, and 47 million women now have guaranteed access to additional preventive services without cost sharing.

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Even if Scott had failed to obtain a highly recommended preventive service such as colorectal screening, we cannot chalk this up to his being insured since we know that Americans on average only receive about half (54.9 percent) of medically recommended preventive care services.

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Also weighing on Obama and his aides as he decides how to proceed is the unpleasant memory of previous dust-ups over contraception, including an election-year spat over an element of Obama's health care overhaul law that required most employers to cover birth control free of charge to female workers as a preventive service.

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The inability of the fee-for-service system to provide good preventive care is arguably one of the main reasons why the average American is no fitter than, and lives no longer than, people from European or Asian countries that spend far less on health care.

ECONOMIST: Your money or your life