KIRKSVILLE, MO --  

There's a lot of controversy about the new mammogram guidelines, and who will pay for them.
    
We spoke with a local lawmaker about the issue, who says that while the issue is an important one, we shouldn't get so focused on breast cancer that we forget about other diseases that affect women.

“For example, breast cancer's not the number one killer for women in Missouri or across the nation, heart disease is. So we want to focus on all of the aspects of health for a woman and by the way, some of those risk factors are overlapping,” said State Representative Rebecca McClanahan.

She says the issue is being over-hyped, and women shouldn't let the frenzy scare them into poor decisions

“I think it's so important that women not make or change their decisions based on something that they've heard in the news. It's so important not to overreact to a sound byte. I think that the first thing a woman should do is have that conversation with her healthcare provider,” McClanahan said.

According to Missouri law, insurance is required to foot the bill for screenings for women in their forties and older. McClanahan says she's always been concerned about insurance based on a menu of choices.

“Because we're going to leave something out. If we do it one law at a time, one condition at a time, whether the condition is breast cancer or autism coverage, we probably shouldn't do it one condition at a time,” McClanahan said.
 
She says it's important to not lose sight of the bigger picture, that many women don't even have health insurance. If you're uninsured, you should contact your local health department which has programs for those with low income or no insurance.