Latest KFF Health News Stories
Mass. House Releases Plan To Curb Health Costs
Proposal would create an agency to oversee medical spending and would set limits on what hospitals and doctors could charge.
Rivlin On Medicare And The Debt: ‘We Know What To Do’
Whoever ends up controlling the White House next year – Barack Obama or Mitt Romney — will have to make compromises if they are to solve the nation’s current budget and health care crises. “I think we know what to do,” Alice Rivlin, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Friday afternoon as […]
Massachusetts Lawmakers Unveil Ambitious Plan To Cut Health Care Costs
The proposal for state House lawmakers would control rising medical costs by capping a cap on health-care spending and could include a tax on hospitals.
Health Care Employment Continues Growing Faster Than Other Sectors
Health-care employers continued hiring at a brisk pace last month even as overall employment growth slowed down, today’s jobs report shows. Hospitals, doctor offices and other medical employers added 19,000 jobs in April. That represents a sixth of the total April increase of 115,000 jobs, even though health care makes up only 11 percent of the employment […]
Devex Examines Closing Of Global Health Council
Devex examines the April 20 announcement by the Global Health Council (GHC) that it will cease operations in the year of its 40th anniversary, discussing possible reasons why the organization is closing and what lies ahead for its members. According to Devex, a lack of funding, operating challenges, and “a lack of focus” all potentially contributed to the organization’s impending closure. “GHC, for its part, has pointed to the general shift from a ‘broad-based health agenda’ toward disease-specific approaches as a reason for its shutdown,” the news service states. As for the future, Devex notes that those consulted for the article were “either unsure which group would” fill the gap left by GHC’s closure or “suggested that a new group or a coalition needs to form” (Schiff, 5/4).
Today’s Headlines – May 4, 2012
Happy Friday! Here are your end-of-week headlines! The Washington Post: Poll: Obama Leads Romney As Campaigns Converge On Virginia The Democratic president has a key advantage in his bid for re¬election: The coalition of Virginians that helped propel him to victory in 2008 — young voters, suburban Washingtonians, women and African Americans — is largely […]
American Voters Say U.S. Support For WHO Important, Poll Shows
“Nine in 10 U.S. voters say it’s important for the United States to support the global health efforts of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, according to a United Nations Foundation/Better World Campaign poll [.pdf] released Thursday,” The Hill’s “Global Affairs” blog reports. “The poll comes as lawmakers debate significant cuts to federal spending, including cuts to global health funding and foreign aid,” the blog notes (Pecquet, 5/3).
In an interview with Foreign Policy, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah speaks “about how he is reinventing USAID, an often-embattled agency charged with helping the world’s poorest countries develop, while at the same time dealing with crises around the globe,” the magazine reports. Shah discusses his career path, spending oversight, “expanding public-private partnerships, and integrating development and emergency intervention,” especially in relationship to food security in Africa, according to Foreign Policy. Shah said, “The challenges remain fierce but we are excited about the momentum we are achieving through our resilience work around the world and with specific countries,” the magazine notes (Loewenberg, 5/3).
Sierra Leone Has Made Progress In Improving Maternal, Child Health Care, But ‘Much More To Do’
“Just two years ago, our country had one of the worst maternal and infant death rates in the world,” Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma writes in a Huffington Post U.K. “Impact” blog post, adding, “We knew something had to be done.” So in September 2009, the government announced “that all health user fees would be removed for pregnant and lactating women and children under the age of five” and “introduced the Free Health Care Initiative [FHCI] in April 2010, which would give around 460,000 women and a million children a much better chance of having a longer and happier life,” Koroma writes. In one year, the FHCI facilitated a “214 percent increase in the number of children attending outpatient units” and a 61 percent reduction in “the number of women dying from pregnancy complications at facilities,” and “increased the number of health workers and ensured they were given big salary rises to reflect the importance of their positions,” he notes.
As part of a series of Slate articles highlighting issues being examined by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Bjorn Lomborg, director of the center, examines the implications of population growth on development indicators. In a research paper released on Thursday “for Copenhagen Consensus 2012, Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania looks at sub-Saharan African nations that, among high-fertility countries, make the dominant contribution to world population growth,” he notes, adding, “‘High-fertility’ countries today account for about 38 percent of the 78 million people that are added annually to the world population, despite the fact that they are home to only 18 percent of the population.”
Guardian Examines Launch Of GAVI-Sponsored Immunization Campaign In Ghana
Ghana’s recent “rollout of the rotavirus vaccine and, to much acclaim, a new vaccine against pneumococcal infections, [makes it] the first country in sub-Saharan African to introduce two new vaccines at the same time,” the Guardian reports. The immunization campaign, organized by the Ghanaian government and the GAVI Alliance in partnership with other international agencies, philanthropies and the private sector, is “expected to save thousands of lives,” the newspaper notes. “That GAVI has deemed Ghana able to introduce rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines together is a vote of confidence in the country’s ability to establish a ‘cold chain,'” a refrigeration network necessary to keep the vaccines viable, according to the Guardian.
The Kaiser Family Foundation on Thursday released a new issue brief that “provides a summary of the major policies and statutory requirements governing U.S. participation in international family planning and reproductive health efforts,” according to the website. “These laws and policies collectively direct how funds are spent, which organizations receive funds and generally shape U.S. family planning and reproductive health activities around the world,” the website adds (5/3).
President Obama Invites Four African Leaders To G8 Summit To Discuss Food Security
President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of four African nations “to join the G8 leaders’ summit at Camp David later this month for a session on food security, the White House said on Thursday,” Reuters reports. White House spokesperson Jay Carney said in a statement that Obama invited Benin President Yayi Boni, Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ghana President John Mills and Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, according to the news service (MacInnis, 5/3). They will join other leaders of G8 member nations — which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — at the summit, scheduled for May 18-19, CNN notes. The leaders are expected to discuss food security “amid fears of famine and drought in some parts of Africa,” the news service writes (Karimi, 5/4).
China Joins Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves
“Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo announced that China has joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves during a tour of a clean cookstove exhibit with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beijing today,” a U.S. Department of State press release reports. “By joining the Alliance, China will help meet the Alliance’s goal to ensure 100 million homes adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020,” the press release states (5/3).
UNFPA, International Confederation of Midwives Recognize International Day Of The Midwife
In a joint statement (.pdf), UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin and Agneta Bridges, secretary-general of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), recognize the International Day of the Midwife on May 5. “The right to health is a basic human right that every woman should enjoy. Yet, every day, almost 1,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth
U.N. Adopts Resolution On Young People’s Sexual And Reproductive Rights
This RH Reality Check post by the International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region (IPPFWHR) examines a “resolution in support of young people’s sexual and reproductive health and human rights” adopted recently by member states at the 45th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD). According to the post, “[k]ey points of the final resolution include: The right of young people to decide on all matters related to their sexuality; Access to sexual and reproductive health services
Dengue Fever Costs Puerto Rico Nearly $38M A Year, Study Shows
“The costs of treating and coping with dengue fever in Puerto Rico total nearly $38 million a year, a new study,” published Wednesday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, finds, according to U.S. News & World Report. “It also said that every $1 spent on surveillance and prevention of the mosquito-borne disease could save $5 in illness-related costs,” the news service reports (5/2). “A team of researchers from Brandeis University says households in the U.S. territory pay almost half of that cost, with the government and insurance companies splitting the rest,” the Associated Press/Seattle Times notes (5/2).
Reining In Medicare Costs: Lots Of Talk But Little Action
News outlets report on how efforts to control Medicare spending often get lost in campaign posturing.
High Profile Judge Hints That Decision To Strike Health Law ‘Would Be A Mistake’
The Wall Street Journal reports that Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said the high court should “think twice” about overturning the law. In other health law news, the White House’s under-the-radar effort to build support for the overhaul appears to be working.
For U.S., Preventable Health Conditions A Gathering Storm
Georgia Health News reports that speakers at a recent Atlanta conference had much to say about the burden of obesity and diabetes.