When health care science and intuition collide

This week, the Senate will take up debate on its health care reform bill. One of the questions at the center of that discussion will be how best to cut costs and still maintain good care. Last week, we heard new recommendations from a physicians’ group on breast cancer and cervical cancer screening that would produce exactly that result: good care, at lower costs. The scientific basis for the recommendations appears sound, and yet the public response to those recommendations ranged from confused to angry. What happens when the science on good health care clashes with people’s feelings about their own care? We speak to Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania; along with Dr. Stacy Berg, pediatric oncologist at Texas Children’s Hospital.