Latest KFF Health News Stories
House Passes Repeal Of Tax On Medical Devices
The bill, which is likely to hit tough opposition in the Senate, would roll back a tax in the 2010 health law designed to help pay for the expansion of coverage to people who do not have insurance.
Viewpoints: Bipartisanship On Medical Device Tax; ‘Overreach’ In Contraception Fight
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Research Roundup: Savings From Electronic Health Records?
This week’s studies come from The Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Affairs, the Annals of Internal Medicine and other news outlets.
30th UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board Meeting Concludes In Geneva
“If the vision of zero new HIV infections is to be achieved, a reinvigoration of HIV prevention is urgently needed,” UNAIDS writes in a feature article on its webpage, adding, “This will be most effective if a combination prevention approach is adopted, where multi-faceted and tailored programs are implemented.” The agency writes, “An in-depth exploration of how such an approach can be implemented took place during the thematic session of the 30th UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board (PCB) meeting in Geneva on 6 June” and discusses the session in detail (6/7).
Forbes Interviews UNFPA Executive Director Regarding Global Progress In Reducing Maternal Mortality
In this post in the Forbes “Leadership” blog, contributor Rahim Kanani interviews U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin about a report titled “Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010” — released by UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank in May — “which shows that the annual number of women who die in pregnancy or childbirth has dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000, a decline of 47 percent.” Among other topics, they discuss key findings of the report, highlight which regions of the world made the most progress, and note some of the “most promising interventions to reduce the number of women around the world dying in childbirth” (6/7).
Survey: Young Adults Don’t Necessarily Fit ‘Young Invincible’ Stereotype
Young adults’ insurance coverage has significantly improved since the passage of the health law, but this trend could be derailed by the Supreme Court’s much-anticipated ruling on the law, expected this month. One of the law’s most popular provisions requires insurers to cover people up to age 26 on their parents’ policies. Roughly 6.6 million […]
Learning From Successful Women’s Health Initiatives In India
“With almost 200 million people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, a state more populous than the entire country of Brazil, the sheer breadth of exciting, new ways to improve maternal and child health is enormous,” Gary Darmstadt, head of the Family Health Division of the foundation, and Wendy Prosser, a research analyst with the division, write in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog. They conclude, “Our partners in Uttar Pradesh are asking for inventive ways to share knowledge to scale successful interventions which have a positive, lasting impact on women’s and children’s health. And we’re working to address this need, given the tremendous potential to increase our collective ability for impact when it comes to maternal, newborn, and child health in India — and to disseminate this learning from India for benefit throughout the world” (6/7).
Policies Aiming To Improve Health, Promote Sustainable Development ‘Urgently Needed’
In an article in the Lancet, Andy Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues, write that, 20 years after the Earth Summit and as world leaders prepare to meet at the Rio+20 conference to advance sustainable development, “[i]mplementation of policies that both improve health and promote sustainable development is urgently needed.” They add, “Many of the development goals [resulting from the Earth Summit] have not been achieved partly because social (including health), economic, and environmental priorities have not been addressed in an integrated manner,” and conclude, “Provision for a healthy world population of 10 billion should be possible without undermining of sustainability. However, such provision will need major changes in policies, institutions, governance, and lifestyles on an unprecedented scale” (6/9).
Peace Corps Official Reflects On Global Health Service Partnership
In this post in the AIDS.gov blog, Buck Buckingham, director of the Peace Corps Office of Global Health and HIV, reflects on the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), launched by Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams in March, writing, “Although this partnership is an exciting innovation for the Peace Corps, the commitment to health which it reflects finds deep roots in our history, as Director Williams described at the launch on March 13.” He adds, “The partnership will take on fuller definition this summer, when invited physicians and nurses from academic health centers and other centers of expertise in the United States and the three initial countries in the pilot program will gather in Washington, D.C. on July 21 to further plan the contours of its work” (6/7).
Family Planning Summit Next Month ‘Could Mark Turning Point For Maternal Health’
In this post in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin discusses a family planning summit to be held in London next month, writing the UNFPA “is supporting the initiative so that it can gain traction and support among other donors and UN member countries.” He writes, “More than 200 million women, largely in the least developed countries, want to use modern family planning methods but can’t access them,” and continues, “Enabling women to control the number and spacing of their children is essential to reducing maternal deaths.” The summit, co-hosted by the U.K. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “will be launched to meet this unfilled need for modern family planning in developing countries by tackling the estimated $3.6 billion (
Tackling Diarrhea, Pneumonia Could Save 2M Children, According To UNICEF Report
“Two million of the world’s poorest children could be saved by introducing routine vaccination programs against diarrhea and pneumonia,” according to a new report (.pdf) from UNICEF, BBC News reports (6/8). “Pneumonia and diarrhea account for nearly one-third of the deaths among children under five globally,” the Guardian writes, adding, “Nearly 90 percent of deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia” (Tran, 6/8). The report “identifies a tremendous opportunity to narrow the child survival gap both among and within countries by increasing commitment, attention and funding,” according to a press release from UNICEF (6/8).
Magazine Examines Efforts To Biologically Alter Bugs To Fight Human Diseases
Pacific Standard magazine examines efforts by researchers around the globe to biologically modify bugs to fight human diseases, such as dengue fever. “Biologically altering bugs isn’t entirely new; it’s been done for nearly half a century to protect crops. … It’s only recently, however, that scientists have begun experimenting with using this technology to combat human diseases,” the magazine writes, adding, “If they succeed, they could create an entirely new way of stopping not only dengue but other insect-borne scourges, such as yellow fever, West Nile virus, and malaria. And stopping these diseases has never been more urgent.”
UNAIDS Director Calls For ARV Production In Africa
“Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibe Wednesday called for the production of anti-retroviral drugs [ARVs] in Africa to make the life-saving medicines against AIDS accessible to patients and boost the medicines manufacturing sector on the continent,” PANA/AfriqueJet reports. Speaking at the 16th West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Summit in Lome, Togo, “Sidibe said it was time for the continent to negotiate strong partnerships with emerging countries, including India and Brazil, to support the local production of ARVs in Africa,” the news service writes, adding, “According to [Sidibe], Africa accounts for only one percent of the medicine manufacturing sector that is expected to generate as much as $1 trillion by 2015” (6/7).
PlusNews Examines Efforts Of Malawi’s New President To Restore Donor Relations, Fight HIV/AIDS
“Malawi’s new president, Joyce Banda, has inherited an unenviable to-do list from former president Bingu wa Mutharika, and AIDS activists are hoping that bolstering the donor-dependent AIDS response will be one of her most urgent priorities,” PlusNews reports. “An estimated 10 percent of the adult population is HIV-positive, with about 70,000 Malawians newly infected with HIV every year,” the news service writes, adding, “Yet the country is almost entirely dependent on external funding for its AIDS programs, and ambitious plans to scale up treatment have been derailed after the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria rejected a succession of funding proposals.”
Kenya To Distribute Free Syringes, Needles To People Who Use Injection Drugs
“The Kenyan government will begin distributing free syringes and needles to more than 50,000 [injection] drug users (IDUs) across the country in the next month,” PlusNews reports, adding, “Policy-makers and experts said the decision was reached following concerns over the spread of HIV and other blood-borne illnesses through injection drug use.” “[Injection] drug use is responsible for close to four percent of national HIV infections and 17 percent of new infections in Coast Province annually, according to government statistics,” according to the news service. “The government aims to distribute some eight million needles and syringes to drug users countrywide once the program is rolled out and will also encourage HIV testing, provide antiretroviral drugs, condoms, and medication for tuberculosis, the most commonly found co-infection with HIV” the news service writes (6/7).
Battle To Control Malaria In Cambodia ‘Not Over’
“Two years after some $22 million in donor funds were pumped into malaria control along the Cambodia-Thailand border to fight off suspected resistance to treatment, health workers say the battle is not over,” IRIN reports, adding, “The government reported 103,000 malaria infections and 151 deaths nationwide in 2010. A year later, 85,000 reported infections led to 93 deaths — a 38-percent decline in mortality.” “‘If you take your foot off the
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that the House voted to repeal the health law’s medical device tax.
Wallack On Vermont’s Goal: ‘Universal, Affordable Coverage’
Anya Rader Wallack, tapped to move Vermont toward a single payer system, is confident the state would enact its own individual mandate if the Supreme Court strikes down the federal mandate.
Will The Cadillac Tax Extend To Individual Plans Or The Self-Employed?
Michelle Andrews answers a question from a reader about who will be affected by the health law’s Cadillac tax, a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost plans set to start in 2018.
The Downside Of Health Care Job Growth
Health care employment has been the bright spot in the otherwise lackluster recent jobs reports. As overall employment decreased by 2 percent from 2000 to 2010, employment in the health care sector actually increased by 25 percent. But that’s not necessarily a good thing, according to an opinion piece published in the most recent edition of the […]