Latest KFF Health News Stories
High Court Says No To Allowing Cameras To Broadcast The Health Law Arguments
This announcement, made Friday, is consistent with tradition. However, the court will make available same-day audio of the oral arguments because of “extraordinary public interest.”
Maryland Officials Seek To Boost Enrollment In High Risk Insurance Plan
People with medical problems often have trouble buying insurance, but the program, funded by the federal government, offers plans designed for them.
Texas Files Lawsuit Over Federal Defunding Of Women’s Health Program
Texas’ attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the federal government saying cutting off federal funds for the state’s Women’s Health Program, which federal officials began last week, is unconstitutional because it seeks to ‘coerce’ the states into giving money to abortion providers.
Viewpoints: The Argument For The Health Law; No One Wins Contraception Battle
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
World Bank Report Calls For Increased HIV Prevention Efforts In Africa
In a report published last week, the World Bank “called on African governments and international donors to increase efforts to prevent new HIV infections in order to control treatment costs,” VOA News reports. “One of the report’s co-authors, Markus Haacker, said countries facing the highest burden are often not those with the highest infection rate, but rather low-income countries that lack the resources to keep pace with each new infection,” VOA notes.
WHO Hopes For Release Of Bird Flu Studies, Prepares For Second Meeting On Controversy
Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security and environment, “is hoping bird flu studies currently in publishing limbo will be released by the time the agency hosts a second meeting on the controversy this summer,” the Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press reports. “A major break in the impasse would be needed for that to happen,” the Canadian Press writes, adding, “As things currently stand, revised versions of the two studies are due to be presented late this month to the U.S. biosecurity panel that earlier recommended against their full publication.”
First International Podoconiosis Initiative Launched
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect” blog highlights “the first-ever international podoconiosis initiative, Footwork,” launched on March 15. “Footwork is aimed at raising public awareness about the causes and impact of podoconiosis” — a form of elephantiasis — “in affected communities, and advocates for it to be included in global health and [neglected tropical disease] agendas,” the blog writes, adding, “An estimated four million people in highland tropical Africa are affected with podoconiosis, and it has been confirmed in at least 15 countries in Africa, Central America and Asia” (Patel, 3/16).
More Than 1M Children Under Age 5 At Risk Of Malnutrition In Sahel, UNICEF Warns
“The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than a million children below the age of five in the Sahel are facing a disaster amid the ongoing food crisis in the drought-prone region of Africa,” the U.N. News Centre reports (3/16). “‘More extreme conditions could see this number rise to about 1.5 million and the problem is that funding is not coming in at the rate that we need in order to prepare properly,’ [UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado] said. ‘So far we have received just one-fifth of the $119 million we have asked for in 2012,'” VOA News writes (3/16).
CSIS Report Examines HIV Prevention, Care Among People Who Inject Drugs In Ukraine
A new report, titled “Injection Drug Use in Ukraine” and published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), examines the challenges of providing HIV prevention and care services in the country, particularly to people who inject drugs (PWID), who accounted for “nearly 50 percent of new HIV infections registered in 2010,” according to the CSIS website. Authors Phillip Nieburg, senior associate and co-chair of the Prevention Committee of the CSIS HIV/AIDS Task Force, and Lisa Carty, senior adviser in the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, also examine how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR could help Ukraine “in advancing HIV prevention and other services for PWID,” the website notes (3/16).
Common Infections Could Become Deadly With Increase In Antibiotic Resistance, WHO’s Chan Says
As more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, “common infections could become deadly, according to” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, who spoke on Wednesday at a conference titled “Combating Antimicrobial Resistance: Time for Action” in Copenhagen, ABC News reports. “‘Some experts say we are moving back to the pre-antibiotic era. No. This will be a post-antibiotic era. In terms of new replacement antibiotics, the pipeline is virtually dry,’ said Chan. ‘A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill,'” the news service notes (Moisse, 3/16).
UNDP Launches Global Water Solidarity Platform
The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) recently launched the Global Water Solidarity Platform “at the World Water Forum in Marseille, France, where 20,000 participants from the private, public and non-profit sectors [met] to address the water crisis,” according to a UNDP press release. “The Global Water Solidarity Platform, which is supported by the governments of France and Switzerland, connects local authorities and organizations to take action to solve water and sanitation challenges, through which, for example, municipal water authorities in more developed countries can take direct action to support the improvement of water and sanitation services in developing contexts by contributing one percent of their revenue or budgets,” the press release states (3/15).
Al Jazeera Examines Global Maternal Mortality
Al Jazeera examines maternal mortality worldwide, saying, “If the situation continues at its current rate, the world will not meet” the U.N. Millennium Development Goal “to reduce maternal mortality by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015.” Though the estimated number of women who die of maternal mortality has dropped from 546,000 in 1990 to 340,000 today, a woman’s lifetime risk of dying during or following pregnancy in developing countries “is still high at one in 31,” compared with one in 4,300 in developed countries, the news agency reports. “Attaining zero maternal death would require greater community involvement and commitment” and increased access to contraceptives and skilled birth attendants, according to experts, Al Jazeera notes (Arjunpuri, 3/19).
A preliminary report on the Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey, conducted by the Ministry of Health, shows the country’s “HIV prevalence rate [has] stagnated over the last 10 years, [and] the number of people infected with HIV has risen from 1.8 million people to 2.3 million today,” the Observer writes. “Health experts at the launch of the preliminary report said this is not only worrying for a poor country like Uganda, but also shows that the billions of dollars sunk into prevention are not reaping any results, as people continue to get infected,” the newspaper writes.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the anticipation and anxiety that surrounds the Supreme Court’s upcoming health law oral arguments.
AARP Arming For Medicare Battle
Against a backdrop of proposals to overhaul the popular social insurance program and a presidential campaign likely to address entitlement spending, the seniors group is mobilizing.
GOP Plans For Medicare, Health Reform Repeal Draw Scrutiny
Political observers are noting challenges for Republican lawmakers in upcoming budget, health law and Medicare debates. And some Democrats in the Senate are being pressured on the issue of keeping one of the health law’s safeguards for slowing Medicare’s costs.
Sides Counting Down To Supreme Court Health Reform Arguments
With the historic arguments over the 2010 reform law less than 10 days away, the Supreme Court rejected video and live audio of the proceedings. The court will release audio every day.
HHS Proposes Options For Contraception Coverage Rule
The Obama administration reiterated the no-copay-for-contraceptives rule but suggested ways religious-affiliated institutions could comply.
New Rule Cuts Student Health Plans Temporary Breaks
Beginning next school year, student health insurance will fall in line with many of the requirements established under the 2010 health law – with some temporary exceptions announced Friday in new rules released by the Obama administration Student insurers and higher education groups had been waiting for months on the final set of rules from […]
HHS Floats New Ideas For Contraception Coverage Compromise
Again wading into the conflict between religious liberty and reproductive rights, the Obama administration on Friday suggested a number of ways it might arrange for insurers to pay for the contraception of employees of religious organizations without using any premium money from those groups. The ideas are intended to deal with a knotty problem created […]