Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare To Tie Doctors’ Pay To Quality, Cost Of Care
A little-noticed provision of the health law calls for increasing reimbursements to doctors who provide quality care at lower cost and reducing payments to physicians who run up costs without better results.
Obama, Romney Advisers Trade Barbs On Priorities
GOP consultant Ed Gillesie says job creation is needed while Democrat David Axelrod says Republican budget cuts will hit safety net programs such as Medicaid.
Contraception, Medicare, Medicaid Hot-Button Topics In Stump Speeches
Political news coverage included a fact check of a Mitt Romney claim and more on the stay-at-home mom controversy.
Nursing Aides Receive New Worker Protections
Think dangerous jobs, and a police officer entering a dark hallway or a firefighter running into a burning building might come to mind. But even more risky? Nursing aides, who have an occupation with the nation’s second highest rate of work-related injuries or illness. Nursing aides and other health care workers can slip or fall or strain […]
Report: Mass. Health Law No ‘Budget Buster’
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation finds that the state spends $91 million more per year, or 1.4 percent of the state budget, for near-universal health insurance coverage. “That’s a very tiny additional cost to taxpayers for huge benefits,” says MTF President Michael Widmer.
Diagnosing Autism In Minutes; Finding New Uses For Old Drugs
Every week, Kaiser Health News reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web. Time: Can Autism Really Be Diagnosed In Minutes? Autism is an extremely complex diagnosis. Parental insight, physician observations and hours of data can factor into determining whether a child actually has the condition or is just a little on the […]
Nursing Aides Receive New Worker Protections
Nursing aides have the nation’s second highest rate of work-related injuries or illness. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to do something to make the job safer.
Politico Pro Examines Reaction To Melinda Gates’s TEDxChange Speech On Family Planning
Politico Pro examines the reaction to a speech delivered by Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at a TEDxChange conference in Berlin on April 5. “Gates’s speech was primarily focused on explaining why family planning is important in the developing world,” according to the news service. Gates said lack of access to modern contraceptives is “a life and death crisis” because with family planning, the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children could be saved annually, the news service notes. “But multiple global health experts heard her comments as an intentional effort to push back on the politicization of birth control in the United States following the Obama administration’s new contraception coverage policy, which they fear could spill over into global health policy,” the news service writes. However, “Gates Foundation spokesman Chris Williams said Gates was simply reiterating her long-standing support for family planning and that viewing these remarks in light of domestic politics would be ‘using the wrong lens,'” the article notes.
Today’s Headlines – April 13, 2012
Happy Friday! Here are your morning headlines … Reuters/Chicago Tribune: Sebelius Seeks Civil Rights Support For U.S. Healthcare Law A top U.S. administration official asked civil rights activists on Thursday to help defend President Barack Obama’s embattled healthcare law, saying the reform package faces an “enemy” determined to set American health policy back half a […]
House GOP Dusts Off Old Budget Ideas To Replace Automatic Cuts
When they return to Capitol Hill next week, Republicans on key House committees are expected to take up earlier proposals as they look for ways to replace some of the automatic budget cuts scheduled to take effect in January. Members of the House Judiciary Committee will make another go at revamping medical liability laws.
Sebelius Appeals To Civil Rights Groups For Health Law Support
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked civil rights activists to help defend the health law. Meanwhile, other news outlets report on specific aspects of the law, including how contractors have been preparing for its implementation, and the latest on accountable care organizations.
U.S. Halts North Korean Food Aid After Country Launches Long-Range Missile
“The U.S. will halt planned shipments of thousands of tons in food aid to North Korea after the reclusive Asian nation’s launch of a long-range rocket, two Obama administration officials said,” Bloomberg News reports (Talev, 4/13). “Under a recent food deal with the United States, North Korea agreed to refrain from long range missile launches and nuclear tests,” CNN’s “1600 Report” writes (Yellin, 4/12). “North Korea’s rocket launch was a failed effort that nonetheless violated international law and jeopardized regional security, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said,” according to Bloomberg (4/13).
As World’s First Polio Vaccine Turns 57, Scientists Working To Develop Better Alternatives
In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Oshinsky examines the development of the world’s first polio vaccine, noting that the vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh, turned 57 on Thursday. “Now, with an eye on the endgame, scientists and researchers are developing even better vaccines,” Oshinsky writes, concluding, “The fight to end polio will not be easy, but it surely can be done. … We must seize this historic opportunity, fulfilling the promise we made to our children — to all children — 57 years ago today” (4/12).
Private Funding For International Humanitarian Response Continues In Face Of Recession, Report Says
“Individuals, businesses and foundations have continued to give money to humanitarian and development organizations despite harsh economic times, providing a crucial source of funding in the face of declining official aid,” according to a report on private aid funding by the monitoring group Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA), the Guardian reports. The news service writes, “According to the report, 24 percent of the international humanitarian response from 2006 to 2010” — at least $18 billion — “came from private voluntary contributions”; “[i]n 2010 alone, $5.8 billion was donated privately, mainly in response to the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan”; and “[a]s a share of the total humanitarian response, private funding grew from 17 percent in 2006 to 32 percent in 2010.”
Coordinated Response Needed To Capitalize On Momentum Of WHO’s Adoption Of Mental Health Resolution
“We commend the 130th session of the WHO Executive Board for adopting a resolution calling for a comprehensive response to the global burden of mental illnesses,” Rebecca Hock of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Mental Health, and colleagues, write in this Lancet opinion piece. “The resolution for mental health, led by India, the U.S., and Switzerland, is the result of a crescendo of political support for addressing mental illnesses and received unanimous support from countries on the WHO Executive Board,” the authors write, noting, “The resolution urges countries to protect and promote the rights of persons with mental disorders and to combat stigma against mental illness.”
Cholera Vaccination Pilot Project Begins In Haiti
“A year and a half after cholera first struck Haiti, a tiny portion of the population on Thursday began getting vaccinated against the waterborne disease that has infected more than 530,000 Haitians and killed more than 7,040,” the New York Times reports (Sontag, 4/12). The pilot project, which will reach only one percent of Haiti’s population, “aim[s] … to show that it’s possible to give the required two doses over a two-week period to desperately poor and hard-to-reach people,” NPR’s health blog “Shots” writes. “If it works, the plan is to convince the Haitian government, deep-pocketed donors and international health agencies to support a much bigger campaign to vaccinate millions of Haitians at highest risk of cholera,” according to the blog (Knox, 4/12).
Daily Monitor Analysis Examines History Of Male Circumcision Debate
In this Daily Monitor analysis, Joseph Matovu, Rhoda Wanyenze and David Serwadda, all lecturers at Makerere University School of Public Health in Kampala, Uganda, respond to two articles related to male circumcision that were published in the Daily Monitor in March. In the analysis, the authors provide a brief overview of the articles — titled “Circumcision does not reduce HIV spread” and “Circumcision and HIV: are we being fed on half-truths?” — noting that they present anti-male circumcision perspectives, and write, “In writing this article, we intended to not only respond to these issues but also provide a more elaborate view of male circumcision and its role in HIV prevention based on scientific evidence at hand.” The authors recount the history of the male circumcision debate, referencing a number of relevant studies, and discuss the policy implications of this research. They conclude, “[M]ale circumcision is currently promoted as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package rather than as a single magic bullet, as anti-male circumcision crusaders would like to make us believe” (4/12).
NTD Experts Push Forward On Plan To Eradicate Yaws
Yaws, a skin and bone disease caused by a treponematoses bacterium that can cause long-term deformities, “has recently been put on WHO’s list of 17 so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)” and, along with Guinea worm, is “slated for eradication,” the Lancet reports. A “massive push to free the world from yaws failed in the 1950s and 1960s,” and the WHO in 1995 estimated “there were 2.5 million cases of endemic treponematoses (mostly yaws),” according to the Lancet. A study published in the Lancet in January showed a single dose of the antibiotic azithromycin was effective at curing the disease among children, a finding that “jump-started the NTD community into action,” the article states.
Next Five Years Important For S. Africa To Show It Can Effectively Respond To HIV, TB
South Africa’s recently released “National Strategic Plan on HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Tuberculosis (TB) 2012-2016” “marked an important milestone” in the nation’s fight against infectious diseases, a Lancet editorial states. “The plan [.pdf] has several broad goals: to reduce new HIV infections by at least 50 percent; to start at least 80 percent of eligible patients on antiretroviral treatment; to reduce the number of new tuberculosis infections and deaths by 50 percent; to ensure a legal framework that protects and promotes human rights to support implementation of the plan; and to reduce self-reported stigma related to HIV and tuberculosis by at least 50 percent,” the editorial notes.
The group released a document on Thursday about its upcoming religious freedom campaign.