Preventive care should be free to patients under the Affordable Care Act, but Elizabeth Melville of Sunapee, NH., was charged $2,185 for a colonoscopy in 2021. Philip Keith/KHN hide caption
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cancer screenings
A human "Pink Ribbon" chain is made to raise breast cancer screening awareness in New York City. Taylor Hill/Getty Images hide caption
First-year medical student Michelle Gentile assists her classmate Abbie Harts as she performs a pelvic exam on a volunteer at Northwestern University. Joshua Lott/Reuters /Landov hide caption
Instructions for the colon screening test were devised so they can be understood in any language. Courtesy of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research hide caption
Mammograms are a key screening tool for breast cancer. But critics say they're not good enough. Salih Dastan/iStockphoto hide caption
Some of the money spent on annual mammograms might do more good if it went toward risk-based screening, a doctor says. iStockphoto hide caption
When it comes to taking care of the girls, mammograms are still the way to go. iStockphoto hide caption
Sally O'Neill decided to have a double mastectomy rather than "do a wait-and-see." Richard Knox/NPR hide caption
Some images of lung cancer are clear cut. But in many others, a nodule on the screen turns out not to be cancer at all. iStockphoto.com hide caption
Cells gathered during a Pap test. Those on the left are normal, and those on the right are infected with human papillomavirus. Ed Uthman/Wikimedia Commons hide caption
Doreen Ramogola-Masire, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Botswana, hopes that a simple, quick screen for cervical cancer with vinegar will catch the disease early and save women's lives. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption
Before the colonoscopy begins, it pays to ask your doctor some pointed questions. Sebastian Schroeder/iStockphoto.com hide caption
Cells gathered during a Pap test. Those on the left are normal, and those on the right are infected with human papillomavirus. Ed Uthman/Wikimedia Commons hide caption