WASHINGTON – Breast cancer survival may be declining under government-run health care systems across the world, but not to worry about that in America, Democrats said Friday.

They voted 36-22 against allowing women with a risk or history of breast cancer to get specialized care under insurance that focuses on breast cancer. The amendment to create a special option for women was “disingenuous,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

The proposal’s author, U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., said his amendment required an annual study on five-year survival rates, and if they decline, “then women could chose to pick a plan that focused on breast cancer.”

Another Republican, Florida U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a nine-year breast cancer survivor, said she was the beneficiary of a system that permitted her “to see six doctors all told, and have three mammograms and an ultrasound before it was finally diagnosed.  I knew something was wrong. In other systems, I would not have had that benefit.”

Waxman, however, argued that minimum benefits under the Democrats’ government system will do the job, and said that the Shadegg proposal was based on “a weak causation, at best.”

The amendment and roll call tally can be found here.