Latest KFF Health News Stories
Veterans Wait As Long As 50 Days For Mental Health Services
An internal investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs concluded that almost half of veterans who seek mental health care face waiting times in excess of those generally cited by the department.
Health System ‘Sticker Shock’ And Other Critiques
NPR reports on how one cancer specialist diagnoses the health system’s ills, while The Associated Press reports on how the costs for a common operation to remove the appendix ranged from $1,500 to $180,000 in one state.
State Medicaid Programs Scrutinized For Fraud
In Louisiana, Minnesota and elsewhere, officials are cracking down on Medicaid fraud.
Costs, Quality Pose Challenges In Caring For Aging Patients
NPR reports on on the difficulties involved in planning for the costs associated with caring for aging parents. Meanwhile, Kaiser Health News reports on a new poll that finds doctors fall short in caring for seniors.
Fights Over Abortion Legislation In N.H., Wisconsin
The New Hampshire Senate is expected to weigh a half dozen abortion bills later this week, including one that would cut off taxpayer funding to providers that perform elective abortions, according to media reports. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, some women’s groups and doctors oppose a law that prompted Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to suspend nonsurgical abortions.
State Roundup: N.Y. Insurance Settlement Costing Patients?
A selection of health policy news from New York, Kansas, California, Minnesota and around the nation.
Viewpoints: ‘Callous’ House Republicans; Supreme Court’s ‘Core Constitutional Role’
A selection of health policy opinions and editorials from around the United States.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the long-term financial fitness of Medicare as well as possible scenarios that could play out after the Supreme Court rules on the health law.
Survey: Court Hearings Don’t Move Public Opinion On Health Law
The three days in March that the Supreme Court devoted to debating the health law didn’t change many minds among the public. But the debate, and related media coverage, appear to have increased awareness about the law and made Republicans more supportive of the justices, according to a new survey. As it has for two years, […]
Travel Insurance Can Protect Your Health Or Wallet On Vacation
For a few dollars you can buy travel health insurance coverage that protects you if you have to cancel or shorten a trip if you, your traveling companions or even a family member not traveling with you becomes ill and requires care.
Medicare Trustee Has New Personal Stake In Program
As a nationally known expert on federal health policy, Robert Reischauer has for decades had more than a passing interest in Medicare. But this week his passion for the program — and concern for its future viability — turned more personal. “I applied for Medicare yesterday,” Reischauer said Monday at a media briefing where he and […]
Medicare Trustees Project Funding Will Fall Short By 2024
Last year’s report predicted the same timeline for the Medicare trust fund’s insolvency. Kaiser Health News is tracking today’s news coverage.
Today’s Headlines – April 23, 2012
Good Monday morning! Here are your headlines to get you back in the swing of things: The Associated Press/Washington Post: Social Security, Medicare Strained By Slow Economic Recovery, Aging Workforce An aging population and an economy that has been slow to rebound are straining the long-term finances of Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two […]
Politics And Policy: Exploring The GOP’s Health Law Alternatives
The Los Angeles Times reports that the health reform plan embraced by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney may be “more revolutionary” than the current health law. Also, Reuters examines some of the policies congressional Republicans are considering if the Supreme Court overturns the law.
State Roundup: Mo. Bill Would Outlaw Federal Health Law
A selection of health policy news from New York, Missouri, Texas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Kansas and California.
Assessment Of Sahel Humanitarian Assistance Finds U.S., Partners Learning From Past Crises
In this post in USAID’s “IMPACTblog,” blog administrator Mark Phelan recounts his recent visit to Niger and Mauritania, in Africa’s Sahel region, where he was “assessing nutrition-focused humanitarian assistance.” He writes, “We are indeed facing a crisis, but I am encouraged by what is being done differently, by ways we have applied lessons learned in the Sahel during food crises in 2010 and 2005, though we still have a long way to go.” He concludes, “I am encouraged that we have learned some important lessons from past crises. The U.S., in partnership with other donors, has taken early action in response to early warnings, and together, we are saving lives” (4/20).
Rising Food Prices Affecting Efforts To Reach MDGs For Food, Nutrition, World Bank/IMF Report Says
“Higher global food prices are hampering attempts to hit targets for food and nutrition,” and “rates of child and maternal mortality [a]re still ‘unacceptably high’ — partly as a result of surging commodity prices,” according to the Global Monitoring Report 2012, released by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday in Washington, D.C., the Guardian reports (Elliot, 4/20). The report says rising food prices have affected some countries’ ability to reach certain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a World Bank/IMF press release notes.
Process Of Reviewing Controversial Experiments For Publication Must Be Streamlined In Future
“We can worry less that a newly created bird flu virus might kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped from the laboratory,” a New York Times editorial states. “But there is still some residual danger. And we remain appalled at the slipshod way in which this research was authorized despite its potential dangers to public health and national security,” the editorial continues. The editorial provides a recap of the controversy leading up to the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity’s recommendation to publish the studies in late March, and writes, “The board’s new verdict is not wholly reassuring.”
CDC Director Calls For ‘Final Push’ To Eradicate Polio
“A ‘final push’ is needed toward eradication of polio worldwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said” in an online update on the agency’s polio eradication efforts, United Press International reports. “Polio incidence dropped more than 99 percent since the launch of global polio eradication efforts in 1988 and no polio cases have been reported since January 2011 in India, one of the four remaining endemic countries, a CDC report said,” UPI writes. “‘Nevertheless, poliovirus transmission is ongoing in the other three endemic countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan — and travelers have carried the infection back to 39 previously polio-free countries over the last several years,’ [the update] said,” according to UPI.
U.S. Gives Go-Ahead On Publication Of H5N1 Research; Dutch Regulators Continue To Debate
The U.S. government on Friday formally accepted a recommendation from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) “to publish two controversial studies of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, moving the pair of papers another step closer to publication,” ScienceInsider reports (Malakoff, 4/20). “Groups led by the two scientists — Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam — engineered the H5N1 virus to be more transmissible between ferrets, mammals whose response to the flu is most like humans,” Bloomberg Businessweek notes. “The research is critical to understanding and detecting bird flu strains, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said [on Friday] in a statement,” Bloomberg writes, noting that the NSABB “recommended in March that Sebelius and Collins approve publication” (Wayne, 4/20).