Latest KFF Health News Stories
Blogs Recognize ‘World No Tobacco Day’
“By the end of the 21st century, more than one billion people are expected to die from illnesses related to tobacco use primarily in low to middle income countries,” Amie Newman, communications officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and editor of the foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog, writes in this blog post in recognition of World No Tobacco Day. “We’ll continue to support efforts which reduce the number of deaths and diseases due to tobacco use — especially in developing countries,” she adds (5/31). An AIDS.gov blog post addresses tobacco use by people living with HIV, writing, “Smoking rates of people living with HIV are estimated to be two to three times higher than the national average, and smoking weakens the immune system, making it harder to fight off HIV-related infections” (5/31).
House GOP Releases White House Emails Detailing Health Law Deals
The communications, which were gathered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, offer an inside look at how the White House struck a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to win support for the health care law.
IRIN Examines Aid Funding In Muslim World
“Every year, somewhere between $200 billion and $1 trillion are spent in ‘mandatory’ alms [zakat] and voluntary charity [sadaqa] across the Muslim world, Islamic financial analysts estimate,” IRIN reports, noting, “At the low end of the estimate, this is 15 times more than global humanitarian aid contributions in 2011.” The news service writes, “With aid from traditional Western donors decreasing in the wake of a global recession, and with about a quarter of the Muslim world living on less than $1.25 a day, this represents a huge pool of potential in the world of aid funding.”
GOP Puts Medicaid Payments On The Table In Student Loan Plan Debate
In an effort to pay for an extension of current student loan interest rates, Republicans leaders targeted Medicaid payments to states as a way to bridge the impasse.
The Lancet Publishes China-Themed Issue On 3rd Anniversary Of Country’s Health Reform Plan
The Lancet on Friday published “a themed issue devoted to China to coincide with the third anniversary of the country’s 2009 health reform plan, and a conference — Preventing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in China: national agenda and local commitments — organized by the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.” According to the journal, “China’s health-reform process, solutions, and lessons will provide evidence to inform debate and, ultimately, enhance global health-care outcomes” (6/2).
Pakistan Looks To India For Guidance On Polio Eradication Efforts
“Impressed with India’s successful effort in polio eradication,” a nine-member Pakistani delegation on Thursday met India’s health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and senior officials of the Ministry to discuss the country’s polio eradication program, the Press Trust of India/Business Standard reports, noting that India achieved a polio-free status as of January (5/31). “‘The focus of our visit here was for us to learn firsthand from the government officials and partners exactly what it took for India to become polio free,’ leader of the Pakistan delegation, Shahnaz Wazir Ali, said,” the PTI/Times of India writes (5/31).
International Community Must Sustain Progress In Reducing Infant Mortality Rates
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “World” blog, Cecilia Attias, former first lady of France and president and founder of the Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women, responds to a recent paper, published by the World Bank, which discusses significant declines in infant and under-five mortality in Kenya and across sub-Saharan Africa. She writes, “Africa’s swift economic growth has become a familiar story; but the fact that fewer children are dying than before — that people’s lives are getting better on the ground — is arguably more heartening than accounts of improvements in African industry or infrastructure or business (though the trends are probably connected).”
HIV Markets In Rich, Poor Countries Are Two Distinct Markets
HIV drugs have not only “transformed a fatal disease into a chronic one,” but “[t]hey have also made HIV a big business,” this Economist editorial states. The editorial examines the market for HIV drugs, writing, “The market is as unusual as it is large, both buoyed by government support and worryingly dependent on it. The past decade has brought fancier medicine in rich countries and copious aid for poor ones. But the war is far from won.” The editorial writes, “In total, public and private investment has yielded more than two dozen HIV drugs,” adding, “Sales of antiretroviral drugs in America and the five biggest European markets reached $13.3 billion in 2011, according to Datamonitor, a research outfit.”
Chagas Disease Could Pose Threat Similar To Other Global Pandemics, Experts Warn
“Researchers are warning that the little-known Chagas disease could pose a threat similar to other global pandemics,” Fox News reports, noting Chagas disease “is a parasitic illness that is most commonly transmitted by the so-called ‘kissing bugs,’ a subfamily of blood-sucking insects, through the parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi” (5/31). In an editorial published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on Tuesday, a team of experts in tropical diseases from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas “likens some aspects of the disease to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and warns of a possible pandemic,” GlobalPost writes (Wolfe, 5/31).
Global Cancer Rates Could Go Up 75% By 2030, Study Suggests
“The number of people with cancer is set to surge by more than 75 percent across the world by 2030, with particularly sharp rises in poor countries as they adopt unhealthy ‘Westernized’ lifestyles,” according to a study published Friday in the Lancet, Reuters reports (Kelland, 5/31). “If current population trends continue, the number of people with cancer worldwide will go up to 22.2 million by 2030, up from 12.7 million in 2008,” CNN’s “The Chart” notes, adding, “Cases are expected to surge in poorer parts of the world, which are ill-equipped to handle the burden” (5/31).
Sex-Selective Abortion Ban Rejected By House
The House on Thursday voted down a bill that would have banned abortions based on the sex of a fetus. Republicans, however, said they achieved a strategic goal of forcing Democrats to vote against it.
N.Y. Catholics Split On Bishops’ Lawsuit Over Contraception Rule
In political developments, a new poll shows a significant divide among Catholics but little support among general voters in New York for the church’s complaints about the Obama administration rule. Also, in Minnesota, a new candidate opens his campaign for Congress and criticizes the state’s handling of Medicaid funds.
States Taking Sides On NYC Sugary Soda Restrictions
A plan by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to limit the sale of large sugary drinks is being met by apprehension by the food industry as other states’ leaders consider what example the restrictions could provide for them.
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Law Barring Gay Marriage
Massachusetts officials had argued to the three-judge panel that the law could deny gay married couples federal benefits such as Medicaid.
UnitedHealth Offers Rebate To Calif. Small Business; Humana On The Lookout For Medicare Deals
This summer, United Healthcare will share $3.5 million in rebates with California small businesses as a part of a requirement of the health law – if it indeed is in effect.
State Roundup: How Health Law Could Harm Mass. Exchange
A selection of health policy stories from Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin.
House Panel Nixes Two Health Law Provisions
The House Ways and Means Committee voted to eliminate a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices and to end a ban on the use of pretax flexible spending accounts to buy nonprescription medicines. These measures, though, are not expected to advance in the Senate even if they pass the full House.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
A Lot At Stake In Supreme Court Health Law Decision For Insurers, Providers
News outlets report on how various players are braced for the ruling. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama tells donors he may have to revisit the law in a second term depending on what the court decides.
Research Roundup: ACOs For Medicaid
This week’s studies come from the Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Mathematica Policy Research, The Kaiser Family Foundation, The Urban Institute and other news outlets.
