This past weekend, former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.

The outpouring of support for the Biden family as Joe fights an uphill battle against this disease has been mixed with speculation as to why this diagnosis wasn’t made earlier. Oncology experts say it is highly unlikely this just happened—it’s more realistic to think the cancer has been present for years. This led pundits to speculate Biden has been keeping this from the public, just as his aides kept his deteriorating mental condition from us when he ran for re-election.

But yesterday, we learned that it had been over 10 years since the 82-year-old president had the critical PSA test that would have exposed the likelihood of prostate cancer. Why? Because current medical guidelines don’t recommend PSA screening in men over 72 years old.

It’s disturbing that the president of the United States isn’t getting the full complement of medical testing—in his position this should be required because of his age, not in spite of it. But what’s also disturbing is that the recommendations for testing presume that someone aged 72 is old.

A century ago, when social security was first implemented, 65 was chosen as the retirement age, because most people left their jobs at 65, went home and “retired” to die shortly thereafter. Today, there are over 7 million people in their 80s in the US, 2.7 million people in their 90s, and over 100,000 centenarians. These numbers will only rise as the large Baby Boomer population ages and medical advances continue.

Don’t we want to keep those people healthy as they live their last two or three decades? Beyond the ethical issues of using outdated assumptions on aging to justify withholding medical treatments from those who could benefit, the economic benefits of keeping the population as healthy as possible for as long as possible are enormous and might reach into the billions of dollars per year.

Even though Joe Biden’s condition is quite serious, there are medical advances that may be able to control or limit the cancer’s spread and keep him alive and healthy for at least some period of time. However, if this had been caught 10 years ago, it might not even be an issue today for the former president.

For the rest of us, it’s time to throw out the old assumptions and not restrict medical care for those who still may benefit from it. The life you save may be your own, or that of a loved one.

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linda@popky.com
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