Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Insurance Exchange Implementation Faces Challenges
In some places, state-level progress in building the law’s insurance exchanges appears to be stalling because of political divisions.
Medical Journals Facing Raft Of Ethical, Transparency Challenges
The New York Times, Connecticut Mirror and MedPage Today examine how prominent journals are handling questions about their independence or integrity.
Mississippi Gov. Signs Landmark Anti-Abortion Law
The state’s new law could effectively close the state’s only clinic. Meanwhile, a law in Idaho designed to limit abortions is being challenged.
FDA To Regulate Smartphone Medical Applications
The FDA will regulate medical applications meant for use on smartphones and tablets. In the meantime, a health insurance exchange leader readies its online tool that could let them in on a $4 billion market.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Strengthening Collective Voice, Influence Of Biomedical Researchers In Global Health Field
In this post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect” blog, guest blogger Jessica Taaffe, founder of Scientists for Global Health (SciGlo) and a postdoctoral fellow researching severe malaria immunopathogenesis at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “discusses the importance of the biomedical community’s contributions to improving health worldwide,” writing, “The collective voice and influence of the biomedical community in global health has been weak, despite our invaluable scientific contributions to improving health worldwide. This needs to change.” She continues, “One way the biomedical community can become more directly involved in global health is through raising awareness of the diseases on which we work. This effort is particularly crucial for those researching diseases occurring mainly outside of the U.S.” (4/16).
Nigerian Vaccine Summit An Opportunity To Translate Political Will Into Action
In this post in the Huffington Post Blog, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), reports on the Nigerian Vaccine Summit, where Nigeria’s leaders will meet this week to discuss children’s health in the country. “With the world’s second largest number of child deaths each year, many of which are due to diseases that could be prevented with vaccines, yet with immunization coverage rates that are lower than many other countries in the region, Nigeria has a major opportunity to save lives by raising immunization coverage and introducing new vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhea, the leading killers of children worldwide,” he writes. Levine recounts progress made in recent years to address immunization and child mortality, but notes that “more remains to be done.”
“On Saturday April 7th, Joyce Banda became Africa’s second sitting female president,” Lyndon Haviland, a senior strategy fellow at Aspen Global Health and Development, notes in this AlertNet opinion piece, writing, “President Banda offers women in Africa a second chance to experience women’s leadership (Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s recent Nobel Peace Prize demonstrates what can happen when women lead) — and for the women of Malawi that cannot come soon enough.” As “[a] longtime advocate for women’s health, education and gender equality, Banda offers women in Malawi hope for a better future,” Haviland writes, noting, “As a founding member of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, Banda has been working on the international stage to accelerate progress toward universal access to reproductive health.”
Washington Post Examines Research Assessing Public Health Benefits Of Clean Cookstoves
“One of the most talked-about public-health initiatives is improving indoor air quality in the rural developing world,” the Washington Post reports, noting “Over the past two years, the United States has pledged $105 million to fighting the cookstove problem.” The newspaper highlights the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, founded with the help of the U.S. government in 2010, which “aims to help 100 million households replace their stoves with clean alternatives by 2020.”
New Report On Child Health, Education Shows Development Aid’s Effectiveness
“In an age of austerity, when everyone is feeling the pinch, some question whether we should continue giving aid to poor countries,” Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children U.K., writes in a Telegraph opinion piece. He says “[t]he resounding answer is yes, according to a new report [.pdf], … which for the first time presents quantifiable evidence of the impact of aid on child survival, health and education” (4/17). The joint report, by the Overseas Development Institute, Save the Children and UNICEF, “analyzes the improvements to children’s lives during the past two decades in five sectors: health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and child protection,” according to the report website (4/17). The report’s “findings are inspiring,” Forsyth writes, noting, “Four million fewer children aged under five died in 2010 than in 1990.”
World Bank Selects U.S. Nominee Jim Kim As President
“The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington’s grip on the job and leaving developing countries frustrated with the selection process,” Reuters reports (Wroughton, 4/16). “The 52-year-old president of Ivy League college Dartmouth beat Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the post, the first time in the World Bank’s history that the U.S. candidate has faced a serious challenge,” the Guardian writes (Rushe, 4/16). “The Korean-American physician and anthropologist, who spent decades working on diseases such as tuberculosis and the AIDS virus, will be the bank’s first leader drawn from the development world rather than politics or finance,” the Wall Street Journal notes (Reddy, 4/16).
“The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington’s grip on the job and leaving developing countries frustrated with the selection process,” Reuters reports (Wroughton, 4/16). “The 52-year-old president of Ivy League college Dartmouth beat Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the post, the first time in the World Bank’s history that the U.S. candidate has faced a serious challenge,” the Guardian writes (Rushe, 4/16). “The Korean-American physician and anthropologist, who spent decades working on diseases such as tuberculosis and the AIDS virus, will be the bank’s first leader drawn from the development world rather than politics or finance,” the Wall Street Journal notes (Reddy, 4/16).
Haiti, the U.S. and other international partners on Monday launched “a nationwide vaccination campaign in the Caribbean country that seeks to curb or prevent infectious diseases, health officials said,” the Associated Press/Fox News reports. The campaign will include immunizations against measles, rubella and polio, as well as the pentavalent vaccine, which is effective against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b, according to the news agency. Immunization rates are low in Haiti, with the WHO reporting slightly more than half of the population immunized for measles and polio, but the current campaign aims to vaccinate 90 percent of Haiti’s youth population, according to Health Minister Florence Duperval Guillaume, the news agency notes.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday announced it has formed an alliance “with the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the latest expansion of the foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative,” the Puget Sound Business Journal reports (Bauman, 4/16). The strategic alliance, which will “explore new ways of tackling challenges associated with vaccines, nutrition, maternal and child health, and infectious disease control,” builds on existing collaborations “to control tuberculosis and dengue fever and improve productivity among small famers,” according to a joint press release from the Gates Foundation and the Brazilian Ministry of Health (4/16).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including health policy reports from the presidential campaign trail as well as news from the states regarding abortion laws.
Wash. Abortion Coverage Bill Placed On Hold
A bill that would require insurers to cover abortion services is off the table this year in Washington state. A special session of the Washington legislature ended Wednesday without the Reproductive Parity Act reaching a vote. The bill would require private insurers that provide maternity coverage to also cover abortion. Advocates now hope to reintroduce […]
Out-Of Network Care Is Expensive But A Couple Of New Options Help
Seeking care from hospitals and doctors who haven’t agreed to negotiated rates with your insurer is costly but consumers can get help from a new database on pricing. The health law is also easing some out-of-network emergency expenses.
Today’s Headlines – April 16, 2012
The New York Times: GOP Lawmakers And Romney Face A Delicate Tango With Representative Paul D. Ryan’s budget plan, Republicans have already set the agenda on the key issue that divides the two parties in an age of austerity: how to manage the federal budget and its related entitlement programs. Mr. Romney has eagerly embraced […]
Questions Surround Medicaid Expansion, Insurance Subsidies
News outlets report on how a range of health law provisions are taking shape — from details of the proposed rule federal subsidies to buy health insurance on state-based exchanges, to its Medicaid expansion and accountable care organizations.
Entitlement Programs At Center Of Capitol Hill’s Gathering Budget Storm
The likely and emerging partisan clash in Congress could force GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to take difficult policy positions in the fall — just as the campaign is coming to an end. Meanwhile, this week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will wrestle with a number of health care issues.
Responses To U.S. Nomination Of Jim Kim For World Bank Presidency
The following is a summary of several recent pieces published in response to the U.S. nomination of Jim Yong Kim to be the next president of the World Bank.