Paying for what does not work remains popular

That's the ABC headline on today's story that young women can avoid cervical cancer just as easily getting pap smears once every two years as every year.

This is good news. Pap smears are a hassle. If you're a woman, or know any, you know this.

So why the pushback? Why the accusation that the Administration wants to ration necessary tests?

One reason is that women continue to die from cancer, including famous women like Stephanie Spielman (right), wife of former football star Chris Spielman. She first discovered her cancer in a self-exam 12 years ago. It took her life on its fifth recurrence.

But not all cancers kill. If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer and told it has a low Gleason score, you may be told to do nothing -- watchful waiting, it's called. Similarly not all breast cancers are invasively aggressive. Research is ongoing to find better ways to distinguish breast tumors.

Meanwhile, thousands of women are losing their breasts each year to unnecessary surgery or risking death from chemotherapy. And millions of women (as well as men) aren't doing the first thing to prevent this disaster -- losing weight.

We imagine a simple formula. Get tested and if there is cancer get treated. But what scientists are trying to tell us is there is a different formula. Get healthy and seek appropriate treatment based on how dangerous your particular cancer is.

This is just what men have been told about prostate cancer for years. It's the refusal of some people to accept this fact that's dangerous.

Many also refuse to accept the fact that you can do everything right and, like Stephanie Spielman, die anyway. It's tragic, but it's true. There is still much more to learn about cancer before it is beaten.

The bottom line is this. We know a lot about how to cut health care costs. Stay healthy. Eat right, exercise, don't get obese. Don't smoke. But too many think this advice is an infringement on their freedom, that magic tests and magic treatments will save us from ourselves.

They won't. Do what works, meaning take care of yourself, and you will be less likely to rely on what does not work, frequent testing and over-treatment.

Of course, this advice can be refined if we know your genetic background, what you are most susceptible to, what is most dangerous to you. But in the end predictive medicine is just a refinement, and the advice you will get from it is similar to what doctors are saying now.

You have the best chance of staying healthy if you take care of yourself, and rely on yourself, rather than the magic of medicine, to keep you well. That is what works.

Sorry if you think this violates your freedom. You remain free to eat that brownie, to smoke that cigarette, to have that fifth beer, to overwork and to ignore your doctor.

But at some point your neighbors, who are paying for your excess, whether in the form of insurance or in the form of taxes, are going to start asking these hard questions, like why do you feel free to drink deeply from the well of cures if you're not doing what it takes to stay well?