Latest KFF Health News Stories
One Third Of Homeless Are Obese
Amid some signs that America’s obesity rates may be flattening out, media outlets report that one in three homeless people is obese and that bariatric surgery, which reduces stomach size, is becoming more common for patients as young as 12 or 13.
Seniors Increasingly Cared For In Multi-Generational Homes
NPR examines how families are living under the same roof to care for senior relatives — and also, to get by.
Insurers Make Patients Pay Hundreds More for Cancer, Arthritis Drugs
Thousands of patients taking costly drugs for ailments such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis are being asked to shoulder a greater share of the expense. In other news, consumers are demanding access to their medical device data. Others are harnessing the internet to jumpstart medical research and share important experiences, including serious illnesses, with family and friends.
Health officials attending last week’s World Health Assembly “failed to come to an agreement on a binding convention on stimulating research and development [R&D] focusing on the health problems of developing countries,” BMJ reports. The negotiations focused on an April report by the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG) on R&D, which included a recommendation “that all countries — developing and developed — should commit around 0.01 percent of their gross domestic product to research into and development of treatments for the health problems of developing countries,” the news service notes. However, “[t]he United States (despite the fact that it already meets this target), the European Union, and Japan blocked this recommendation, and instead member states agreed on the final day of the assembly that the report would be discussed at regional committee meetings in the next few months,” BMJ writes, noting that “WHO will hold a global meeting later in the year that will report back to WHO’s executive board meeting in January” and that “[n]ew proposals will be put on the agenda for next year’s assembly” (Gulland, 5/28).
Bipartisan Group Of Senators Say They’ll Ratify Disability Treaty
The senators are backing a U.N. treaty they say would protect Americans with disabilities who work or travel abroad. The Obama administration has sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification.
Al Jazeera Business Program Examines Fight Against Malaria
Al Jazeera’s “Counting the Cost” program on Saturday focused on the fight against malaria and the “business behind its treatment and prevention.” According to the program, progress against malaria “is being threatened in these tough economic times. There is a $3 billion shortfall in funding for malaria treatment and prevention.” The program reports on drug-resistant malaria strains in South-East Asia; examines a vaccine candidate under development by GlaxoSmithKline; speaks with Jo Lines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Christoph Benn of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria about the impact of the international financial crisis on the fight against the disease; and discusses a mobile phone app developed by a group of medical students that would help people receive a quicker diagnosis and treatment (Santamaria, 5/26).
Specialty Doctor Groups Ask Feds To Delay Managed Care Move For Dual Eligibles
Several organizations have asked the federal government to slow down implementation of a health law provision that would move people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid into managed care.
Ill. House Passes $1.6 Billion In Medicaid Cuts, New Cigarette Tax To Help Close Budget Gap
Illinois House lawmakers approved $1.6 billion in Medicaid cuts and a new $1 per pack cigarette tax Friday to help plug one of the nation’s biggest budget holes. The bill would help fill the gap by reducing eligibility and lowering provider payments.
‘Silo’ Effect Of Western Health Aid To Africa Damaging Continent’s Future
In a two-part series in his Slate blog “The Reckoning,” author Michael Moran examines the “silo” effect of Western aid to improve health in Africa, writing in the first part, “Charities know that raising money for exotic disease eradication in the West is a good deal easier than, say, funding upgrades to substandard cardiac facilities. Yet the later is the real win in the long run.” He references an article published recently in Foreign Affairs by Thomas Bollyky, which Moran summarizes by saying, “Bollyky argues coordinated action to confront communicable crises like HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis must be part of the world’s approach to global health. But by ignoring far greater, non-communicable problems, he says, we doom Africans to low life expectancies and fail to create the impetus for reform and behavioral changes that could be transformational” (5/28).
Democrat, GOP Candidates Say Rivals Would Throw Granny Off Cliff
The battle over Medicare figures large in House and Senate races across the country, with candidates and their allies trading charges over who would inflict the most damage to seniors.
Half Of New Vets Seek Disability, Obama Vows To Protect All Veterans’ Benefits
Veterans returning from war are seeking disability at high rates as President Obama vows to protect their benefits in Memorial Day speeches.
“Unexpectedly sharp price rises in April for local cereals like millet, rice, and maize in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad mean many vulnerable people in the drought-hit Sahel could find it even harder to get enough to eat,” IRIN reports. “Prices are expected to keep rising until the end of August — during the lean season — but the size of recent hikes has surprised food price analysts and humanitarian aid personnel,” the news service writes (5/25). In an article detailing the situation in Senegal, the Associated Press notes, “More than one million children under five in this wide, arid swath of Africa below the Sahara are now at risk of a food shortage so severe that it threatens their lives, UNICEF estimates” (Larson, 5/27).
House To Vote On Amended FDA Bill, Hears From Docs On Pay Fix
The GOP-led House will vote on an amended version of the FDA reauthorization bill, and medical officials are urging action on Medicare payments.
Widespread Cholera Vaccination Needed In Haiti While Improvements Made To Water, Sanitation Systems
“As the world’s worst outbreak of cholera continues to ravage Haiti, international donors have averted their gaze,” a Washington Post editorial writes. The editorial notes that a “pilot project to vaccinate Haitians against the disease … reached only one percent of the population, with no immediate prospect of expansion,” and “[o]f the 100 or so cholera treatment centers that sprang up around the country after the disease was detected 19 months ago, fewer than a third remain.” The solution to the epidemic is “equally well known and costly,” the editorial states, adding, “Haiti needs modern water and sanitation infrastructure, an undertaking that might cost $1 billion. But while donors tend to respond generously to emergencies, such as the earthquake that devastated Haiti in early 2010, they lose interest in long-term fixes of the sort that would deal decisively with cholera.”
House GOP Plans New Votes Repealing Parts Of Health Law
The two bills would repeal a tax on medical devices and ease restrictions on health savings accounts, and leaders plan to have the votes before the Supreme Court decision on the law.
Paper Examines Global Health And Climate Change
In paper published online by the journal Globalization and Health, Kathryn Bowen and Sharon Friel of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University examine how global health fits into climate change adaptation activities. According to the abstract, “The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of adaptation and its relevance to global health, and highlight the opportunities to improve health and reduce health inequities via the new and additional funding that is available for climate change adaptation activities” (5/27).
A selection of opinions and editorials about the health law — what it’s doing and where it’s going.
Viewpoints: Contraception Indignation ‘Built On Air’; Frustration With VA’s Backlog
A selection of health care opinions and editorials from around the U.S.
Today’s early morning highlights from major news organizations, including articles on higher drug costs for some consumers and both parties’ efforts to influence voters with claims about Medicare.
Cardinal Wuerl Says Bishops Are United In Fight With Administration Over Contraception Rule
Archbishop of Washington denies a split in the church over recent lawsuit filed by some bishops.
