Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Roundup: Minn. Can Cut Health Care Aide Pay; Ore. CCO Guidelines Released
A selection of state health policy and politics stories from Georgia, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Oregon, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
Poll: Two-Thirds Of Americans Want At Least Part Of Health Law Overturned
News outlets examine polls and public opinion related to the health law and explore how much of a campaign issue it may ultimately turn out to be.
Pakistan’s Draft Bill That Would Punish Parents For Not Vaccinating Children ‘Misses The Mark’
“Eradicating polio and improving the health of millions of children in Pakistan depend quite heavily on assuring that all children have access to life-saving vaccines,” but “[t]he most recent policy prescription from the Pakistani parliament to improve immunization coverage, however, misses the mark, and badly,” Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center, writes in this Huffington Post “World” blog post. “A draft bill being finalized in the Pakistani parliament would require compulsory vaccination of all children, and would introduce tough penalties — including fines and imprisonment — for parents of unvaccinated children,” Levine says. However, supply issues may prevent some parents from being able to vaccinate children, and the threat of punishment may force some to falsify immunization records, he notes.
News sites reflect on the arguments being made before the Supreme Court about the 2010 federal health law.
Opinion Pieces, Blog Posts, Editorial Respond To Nomination Of Jim Yong Kim To Lead World Bank
On Friday, March 23, President Obama nominated Jim Yong Kim, a global health expert and president of Dartmouth College, to be the next president of the World Bank. The following is a summary of several opinion pieces, blog posts, and an editorial published in response to his nomination.
Legislatures, Governors Contentious On Health Care Issues
In New York and Kansas, health insurance exchanges are under scrutiny.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
World Bank Presidential Nominee Kim Begins 7-Country ‘Listening Tour’ To Promote Candidacy
The White House nominee for president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, on Tuesday begins a seven-country “listening tour” in order “to promote his candidacy with stops in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Treasury Department announced Monday,” Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Crutsinger, 3/26). According to Reuters, “The Treasury Department said Kim will visit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as well as Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi, Brasilia and Mexico City between March 27 and April 9 to meet heads of state, finance ministers and others to talk about priorities for the World Bank.”
“India’s inadequate government-run tuberculosis [TB] treatment programs and a lack of regulation of the sale of drugs that fight the disease are responsible for the [increasing] number of drug-resistant cases that are difficult to treat,” health advocacy organizations said in India last week, the Associated Press/Huffington Post reports. “India adds an estimated 99,000 cases of drug-resistant TB every year, but only a tiny fraction of those infected receive the proper” six- to nine-month antibiotic regimen, according to the AP. In India, government-run TB treatment programs only provide drugs to patients on alternate days, increasing the likelihood of missed doses, and patients increasingly are turning to private physicians who are unaware of how to treat the disease, Medecins Sans Frontieres in India and other health groups said, the news agency reports. “The Indian government had no response Friday to requests for comment on the activists’ allegations,” the AP writes (Naqvi, 3/23).
Cholera Vaccination Campaign Still Stalled In Haiti, NPR Reports
A planned mass cholera vaccination project in Haiti continues to be “bogged down in bureaucratic red tape,” as spring rains begin and the number of cholera cases starts to rise, NPR’s health blog “Shots” reports. The Haitian medical group GHESKIO and international health organization Partners In Health are organizing the vaccination campaign, which “is awaiting approval from a national ethics committee, which wants assurance that the vaccine is no longer considered experimental,” according to the news service, which notes the “WHO last November approved the dollar-a-dose vaccine that’s ready to be used in Haiti.”
India’s Public, Private Sectors Must Do More To Control TB
In this Lancet opinion piece, Madhukar Pai, a professor and tuberculosis (TB) researcher at McGill University and consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses TB control in India. He writes, “Much has been said and written in the media about totally drug-resistant tuberculosis
CGD Examines House Budget Committee Recommendation To Eliminate Feed The Future
In this post in the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog,” Connie Veillette, director of CGD’s rethinking U.S. foreign assistance initiative, discusses the passage of the House Budget Committee’s “budget alternative last week that calls for reduced spending for international affairs.” “Perhaps the oddest and most counter-productive recommendation is to eliminate Feed the Future but continue U.S. food aid, also known as PL 480, in its stead,” she writes, continuing, “PL 480 is not a long-term program to promote food security. … It is a ‘feed the now’ rather than a ‘feed the future’ approach” (3/26).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports detailing what happened during yesterday’s opening-day Supreme Court oral arguments and previewing what’s on tap next.
In Massachusetts, SCOTUS Case Is (Mostly) Irrelevant
The health care battle that began this morning at the Supreme Court is one of the most important of our lifetime. But the direct effect on Massachusetts, which created the framework for the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), is minimal, at best. “The real bottom line is that consequences for Massachusetts are not that great, […]
Debate Over Law Sparks Mostly Civil Exchanges Outside High Court
Scores of opponents and supporters of the health care law rallied next to each other for over three hours Monday, before, during and after the Supreme Court hearing. “Protect our care, protect our law,” yelled the law’s backers as they marched in a circle, some with shirts that read, “Death is not an option.” “We […]
Some Insurers Paying Patients Who Agree To Get Cheaper Care
In these programs, people who have been prescribed a diagnostic test or elective procedure earn a bonus when they opt to go to a less expensive facility than the one recommended by their physician.
Health Law Accelerates Industry Changes
Experts don’t expect the Supreme Court’s ruling to alter that course.
Dozens Gather Outside Court Hoping to Witness, Shape History
WASHINGTON — Chanting “ACA is here to stay,” and accompanied by a trumpet and drums, about 100 supporters of the 2010 health law rallied outside the Supreme Court Monday morning, as attorneys prepared for three days of oral arguments in the most anticipated high court hearing in years. Fewer than 20 health law opponents also […]
Your Guide To What Happened At The Supreme Court, Day 1
The first day’s arguments focused on the Anti-Injunction Act and whether the court can rule on the case before a penalty is imposed on those who do not have health insurance. KHN’s reporter inside the court, Stuart Taylor, tells Jackie Judd that all the justices, except one, seemed eager to ask questions.
Kaiser Health News is tracking coverage of the arguments, including reports about the justices’ consideration of whether the Anti-Injuction Act would preclude their review of the legal challenges to the individual mandate.