Latest KFF Health News Stories
Recession Boosted Hospital Expansions Into Affluent Areas, Study Finds
Amid the recession, hospitals have been aggressively establishing footholds in affluent areas outside their traditional market boundaries as they fight for the patients with the best insurance, according to a new study. The paper, published in Health Affairs, found hospitals “wooing” EMS workers that service well-off neighborhoods, even sprucing up the rooms where the workers […]
Say What? Most Insurance Covers Little Of The Cost Of Hearing Aids
These devices can easily run thousands of dollars but Medicare doesn’t pay anything and other policies generally have limited reimbursements. One insurer is offering a low-cost program to help.
Today’s Headlines – April 9, 2012
Good morning and welcome back from the weekend. Here are your morning headlines: The Wall Street Journal: Both Parties Wooing Seniors President Barack Obama and Democrats are counting on regaining support from older voters who switched to the GOP in 2008 and 2010 by attacking Republican plans to revamp Medicare. But Mitt Romney is proving […]
Attacks, kidnappings, and the murders of health care workers in the uprisings taking place across the Arab world violate principles held in the Geneva Conventions and international human rights treaties, Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, writes in this Global Post opinion piece. “Recently I briefed the U.S. Congress on eight proximate causes — which I describe below — for the recent rise in such abuses across the Arab world,” he says. The eight causes include the unaccountability of military forces; medical workers have first-hand knowledge of the extent and responsible party of attacks; health care workers sometimes are viewed as “helping the enemy” and are attacked out of retribution; “perceived political activism”; “discrimination based on religious identity”; and “[o]f course error is a possible cause for violations of medical neutrality,” he notes.
USAID Administrator Credits Reduction In Ethiopia’s Child Mortality Rate To Effective Use Of Aid
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah “says development assistance to Ethiopia’s health sector has helped save thousands of children’s lives in the past year,” VOA News reports, noting, “The progress came even as the Horn of Africa was hit by the worst drought in more than half a century.” “Twenty years ago, every fifth child died by the age of five. Today, 10 out of 11 make it past their fifth birthday,” the news service writes, noting, “Shah says the results are a credit to Ethiopia’s effective use of aid dollars.”
To Improve Global Health, Toilets Must Be Redesigned To Work Without Connection To Sanitation Grid
“The toilet is a magnificent thing. … Unfortunately it is an impractical luxury for about two-thirds of the world’s seven billion people because it relies on connections to water and sewerage systems that must be built and maintained at great expense,” a Bloomberg editorial writes. “About 40 percent of all people, an estimated 2.6 billion of them, have no access to even a minimally sanitary facility, according to the World Health Organization,” and “[t]he result is illness and early death. Diarrheal diseases, including those linked to improper sanitation, are the second largest killer in the developing world, taking two million lives annually,” the editorial continues.
U.S. Must Embrace Competitive Election Process For World Bank Presidency To Support Kim’s Nomination
In this New York times opinion piece, Thomas Bollyky, senior fellow for global health, economics and development at the Council on Foreign Relations, comments on the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jim Yong Kim for the World Bank presidency, writing, “For the first time since the World Bank’s creation at the end of World War II, the United States is facing a real challenge over the bank’s leadership. Leaders of some developing and emerging economies have refused to support President Obama’s unexpected choice of Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, to lead the bank.” However, “[a]s the bank’s executive board prepares to vote on April 18, the Americans are likely to get their way, since an 85 percent supermajority of the bank’s voting shares are needed to appoint a president, and the United States is the largest shareholder,” he continues.
Debate Continues About Obama And The High Court
News outlets analyze President Barack Obama’s recent comments on the Supreme Court’s consideration of the health law, looking at historical references, the politics in play and precedents. Reports also take a look at what some judges are saying.
Medicare, Entitlements: Key Political Sparring Points
Although congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama hope to make electoral hay out of the GOP budget’s Medicare revamp, GOP Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is proving to have appeal. During the primary season thus far, Romney has fared well with older voters in swing states.
States Count Health Law Dollars, Brace For Back-Ups If Overhaul Struck Down
In health law implementation news, Iowa gets federal grant for home care workers to visit families with children while Minnesota lawmakers brace for losing Medicaid dollars.
Viewpoints: Scarcity Of Dental Care; Surprise Budget Buster Awaiting States On Retiree Health Costs
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
On The Campaign Trail, It Seems Everyone Has Critics
According to reports, the Obama administration continues to face stiff criticism from Catholic leaders over its contraception policies. Meanwhile, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has among his health policy advisers two people who are on the record in their opposition to the health law he signed while governor of Massachusetts.
Health Law Key To Obama Campaign’s Outreach To Women Voters
Late last week, the president and his deputies were linking parts of the health law and economic opportunities as part of their effort to draw support from women voters. At the same time, The Associated Press reports on the challenges GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney faces in his attempts to bridge the gender gap.
Prepositioning Of Supplies, Knowledge To Handle Disease Outbreaks ‘Future Of Disaster Management’
In this New York Times opinion piece, columnist Tina Rosenberg examines a global rise in cholera cases, writing, “The World Health Organization estimates that there are between three million and five million cases of cholera each year, and between 100,000 and 120,000 deaths. New and more virulent strains are emerging in Asia and Africa, and the WHO says that global warming creates even more hospitable conditions for the disease.” However, “[c]holera should not be a terror. It is easy to treat if you know how,” she writes.
Kodak Withdraws Plan To End Health Benefits For Medicare-Eligible Retirees
In the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, Kodak withdrew a motion to end these health benefits and will instead create a retirees committee to examine issues of medical and survivor benefits. Meanwhile, AT&T contract negotiations continue — with health care premiums and copayments among the issues in play.
Gates Foundation Co-Chair Melinda Gates Delivers TEDxChange Speech On Access To Contraceptives
On Thursday at the TEDxChange conference in Berlin, Germany, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “delivered a powerful case for universal access to contraception for women around the world who need and want it,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. “She described birth control as an idea that, if made policy in both developed and developing countries, could save hundreds of thousands of women’s and children’s lives each year,” the newspaper writes, adding that she “noted being brought up a Catholic and being educated at church schools through high school, even that her mother’s great-uncle was a Jesuit priest.”
Viewpoints: Doctors’ Efforts To Cut Unnecessary Procedures Is A Good First Step
Several news outlets look at the initiative by nine physicians’ groups to identify medical procedures which are frequently unneeded and could even be harmful.
Viewpoints: Health Law Seeks To Remedy Broken Insurance Market; Overhaul Was Sunk By Its Complexity
Commentators look at some of the underlying issues of the health law which is being considered by the Supreme Court.
What’s The Prize In The Wellness Games?
News reports track the latest trends regarding how insurers are using digital gaming methods to encourage wellness and how patients increasingly are being urged to ask questions about the cost of care.
Study Questions Whether FDA Is Too Tough On Online Pharmacies
NPR reports on a study that raises questions about the Food and Drug Administration’s position.