Latest KFF Health News Stories
IPS Examines Promotion Of Women’s Rights, Health Through Development Aid
Inter Press Service examines how “[m]any NGOs, U.N. agencies and parliamentarians continue to call on governments around the world to do more for women’s reproductive rights” through development assistance. The article highlights remarks made by Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at a conference on development aid held in Paris this week, where she said development aid that benefits women can help “a society to grow and develop” and eventually allow nations to become less dependent on aid.
FEWS Network Warns Of ‘Significantly Below Average’ Rainfall During Horn Of Africa Growing Season
“Rain may be ‘significantly’ below average in the Horn of Africa’s main growing season, potentially threatening a region still recovering from famine in 2011, the Famine Early Warning Systems [FEWS] network reported” in a statement (.pdf) on its website on Tuesday, Bloomberg writes. “Rain from March through May in the region, which includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, is expected to begin late and amount to only 60 percent to 85 percent of average, the U.S.-funded provider of food-security warnings” said in the statement, according to Bloomberg (Ruitenberg, 4/4). “The report warned of ‘significant impacts on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources’ in a region that in 2011 suffered one of its worst drought-related food crises in decades,” IRIN reports (4/5).
Gingrich’s Health Care Consulting Firm Declares Bankruptcy
GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s health care consulting company filed for bankruptcy Thursday. The Center for Health Transformation charged up to $200,000 annually to drugmakers, insurers and hospitals for Gingrich’s advice and may have suffered after he stepped down to seek the GOP nomination for president, reports say.
The Mississippi bill, which would require doctors working at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges to a local hospital, passed the House last month and is expected to be signed by the governor. Meanwhile, 32 Republican lawmakers in Arizona received knitted uteruses as part of a national protest against government regulation of women’s health.
Viewpoints: An ‘Easy’ SCOTUS Case?; Is Painkiller Addiction Really An Epidemic?
A selection of opinions and editorials on health care policy from around the country.
Nearly One-Third Of Under 5 Children In Vietnam Are Malnourished, Survey Shows
“Nearly a third of pre-school children in Vietnam suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth, while in urban areas rates of childhood obesity are rising,” according to a report released Thursday by the country’s National Institute of Nutrition, Agence France-Presse reports. The study, based on a survey of more than 37,000 people conducted in 2009 and 2010, showed that more than three million children under the age of five, mainly in poor, rural areas of the country, “were malnourished, underweight or suffered from growth deficiencies,” according to the news agency. Conversely, “[c]hildhood obesity rates have seen a six-fold rise since 2006 and now run at up to 15 percent in wealthier urban areas including the capital Hanoi and southern Ho Chi Minh City, according to the survey,” AFP writes (4/6).
Cost Of Preventive Exams Varies As Much As 700%, Report Finds
The health law seeks to make preventive screening and procedures available to more people, but it could come at a high cost.
“Within five years, for the first time in history, the number of adults 65 and older will exceed the number of children younger than five, the World Health Organization reports,” “which is why the aging global population’s impact on social stability, economic growth and fiscal sustainability should be part of the agenda at next month’s Group of Eight summit,” Michael Hodin, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and executive director of the Global Coalition on Aging, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. “And yet, the agenda for the G8 summit appears deficient on the topic of how countries can work together to develop policy reforms that would create pathways for healthy, active and productive aging,” he writes, adding, “What’s needed are profound policy changes in health, education and urban living that facilitate an active aging.”
Analysis Examines Potential Global Health Impact Of Obama Administration’s FY13 Budget Request
A new analysis from amfAR (.doc), The Foundation for AIDS Research, “estimates potential human impacts of funding changes [in global health programs] proposed in the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request when compared to current operating budget levels (fiscal year 2012).” President Obama’s FY 2013 budget request includes a decrease in funding for PEPFAR and an increase in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to the analysis, which concludes, “Taken together, proposed changes in funding for the Global Fund and PEPFAR could lead to significant reductions in lifesaving AIDS treatment delivery, services to orphans and other vulnerable children, prevention of vertical HIV transmission (from mother-to-child) services, and HIV testing services that could otherwise have been delivered with flat funding for PEPFAR” (April 2012).
DOJ Reaffirms Court’s Power To Review Health Law Case But Urges Caution
In response to a demand from a federal appeals court judge, Attorney General Eric Holder says the Supreme Court has the power to review whether the health law is constitutional, but he also urged the court to show “deference.”
Research Roundup: Effects Of Health Exchanges; Improving Provider Performance
This week’s studies come from the Urban Institute, Health Affairs, The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including the Obama administration’s response to a federal court about the Supreme Court’s power.
Q&A: Should You Have Access To Your Lab Results?
Michelle Andrews answers a question from a reader about patient access to test results. The reader asks: In order for patients to take more responsibility for their care shouldn’t the lab be required to send them results unless specifically precluded by the doctor?
Today’s headlines – April 5, 2012
Good morning! Today’s headlines look at the implications a Supreme Court decision could have on the November elections: The New York Times: Court’s Potential To Goad Voters Swings To Democrats Now strategists in both parties are suggesting this could be the Democrats’ year to make the court a foil to mobilize voters. The prospect arises […]
Questions Emerge After Obama Spars With The Supreme Court
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama made comments that “implicitly” warned the court against overturning the health law. Since then, defenders and critics have weighed in on his words and strategy.
Attorney General: DOJ Will Respond To Federal Judge On Judicial Review
In what has become a charged exchange, a federal judge in Texas demanded the Obama administration explain its views on the court’s authority to overturn acts of Congress. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday the Justice Department would respond “appropriately.”
2010 Insurance Rebates Would Have Hit $2 Billion, Study Says
Consumers would have received rebates of nearly $2 billion — in some cases as much as $300 a member — if the health-law cap on insurance profits and overhead had been in place in 2010, estimates a new study. The paper, published Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, makes no predictions about the rebates that insurers will be required to pay this year for […]
Administration Budget Plan For Veterans’ Health Care Riles Advocates
The budget proposal cuts defense spending in part by increasing health care cost-sharing for retired service members. Also in the news, USA Today reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs is short on psychiatrists as demand for mental health care continues to increase.
“The United States is suspending at least $13 million of its roughly $140 million in annual aid to Mali following last month’s coup in the West African nation, the State Department said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports, noting the “suspension affects U.S. assistance for Mali’s ministry of health, public school construction and the government’s efforts to boost agricultural production.” According to the news agency, “U.S. law bars aid ‘to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.'” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said, “These are worthwhile programs that are now suspended because that aid goes directly to the government of Mali,” Reuters notes (4/5). France and the European Union also immediately suspended all but essential humanitarian aid to the country, according to the Associated Press/USA Today.
AP: Prescription Painkiller Sales Have ‘Exploded,’ Leading Experts To Fear ‘Addiction Epidemic’
Drug Enforcement Administration figures indicate a marked uptick in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan.