A study published in the January 24 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine finds that important breast cancer prevention steps, including mammograms, are less likely to occur when women are expected to produce a co pay for their health insurance coverage plan.

As it's quoted at MSN Health, a co-pay as small as $10 can stand in the way of a woman getting a potentially lifesaving mammography.

Co pays have grown more prevalent and more expensive in recent years, as insurance agencies seek to get consumers to consider cost before getting health-care services. The hope is that it will force consumers to rethink unnecessary procedures and medications, saving health insurance coverage costs.

But unfortunately, breast cancer prevention is one place where we don't need women to skip procedures and treatments. For the cost of the co pay, even as little as $10, that woman might be saving her own life.

But for many women, co pays are higher than $10, and exams may seem unnecessary or too expensive. And for women who don't have health insurance coverage at all, breast cancer prevention is far out of their reach.

What ought to happen is that every woman should be offered a mammogram free with their insurance, and every woman ought to have that insurance to begin with. In the mean time, women who are searching for affordable coverage need to keep in mind that they need a plan that covers mammograms, and that they need to have those mammograms every year after age 40.