Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Law Uncertainty Sets Up ‘Moment-Of-Truth’ Situations
This circumstance is particularly acute regarding states’ decisions about setting up health exchanges.
Wis. Planned Parenthoods Stops Non-Surgical Abortions
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has stopped giving non-surgical abortions after a new law took effect that requires women to have three doctor visits before getting a drug-induced abortion. In Iowa, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is criticizing the state budget that would disallow public Medicaid funding for abortions in cases of rape or incest.
Calif. Officials Propose Controversial Insurance Rules
The health insurance marketplace continues its march toward change as California’s Department of Insurance proposes new controversial rules on small business self-insurance and officials mull increasing premiums on those with unhealthy lifestyles.
Conn., Wis. Collective Bargaining Agreements Mean Public Employee Benefit Changes
Collective bargaining agreements are changing health plans in Connecticut and Wisconsin for home care workers, teachers and a police union — which, if it was not granted an injunction from a judge, would have had to pay new deductibles and copays in Milwaukee.
GAO Report Offers Rebuke Of Medicare Bonus Program
A report to be released today by government auditors calls the Medicare bonus program wasteful and questions claims it improves quality of care.
A selection of health policy opinions and editorials from around the United States.
At a High-Level Meeting on Innovation for Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) on Friday in Washington, D.C., “HIV experts, business leaders, aid agencies and ambassadors of 22 priority countries — home to 90 percent of new HIV infections among children –” agreed that strategic innovations are necessary to curb the spread of the virus from women to their children, PANA/Afrique en Linge reports. “The priority countries are Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe,” the news service notes.
Cancer, Genetic Screenings Under Scrutiny
Various news outlets explore issues around cancer and genetic screening, disease diagnosis and treatment.
Older Patients Trigger New Ideas For Health Care Facilities
News outlets report on innovations in the design of health care facilities that respond to the needs of older patients.
USAID’s Shah Urges Cooperation To Improve Child Health, Survival
“Seeing a child die from pneumonia, diarrhea or a mosquito bite is simply unimaginable to most parents. But that is the sad reality for many families each day,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes in a Huffington Post Blog opinion piece, noting, “Last year over seven million children under five died of largely preventable causes.” He continues, “Today, the global community has the knowledge and the affordable tools to change the course of history,” including bednets, vaccines, and childbirth assistance. “At the current annual rate of decline of 2.6 percent, the gap in child death between rich and poor countries would persist until nearly the end of this century. But we are capable of much more. By working closely with countries and continuing our results-oriented investments in global health, we can bring the rate of child mortality in poor countries to the same level it is in rich countries,” he states.
Report Calls On BRICS Nations To Invest More In Global Health
In this post on the Foreign Policy Association’s “Foreign Policy Blogs Network,” writer Julia Robinson discusses a recent report showing “the rising profile of BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — in health and development assistance and call[ing] upon the group to further their cooperation for better global health in the developing world.” Robinson writes, “BRICS represents the enormous potential of emerging economies to change the current geopolitical landscape, especially in the realm of global health,” adding, “It is accepted fact that BRICS will influence the global agenda going forward. It remains to be seen whether they will also commit to supporting developing countries in their own struggles for greater economic development and improved public health” (4/21).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including advance information about what the trustees who oversee Medicare and Social Security will say about the financial well-being of these massive programs when they release their annual report later today.
Orrin Hatch To Face Primary Battle: Health Care Record On GOP Voters’ Minds
The vote at the Utah Republican state convention meant that the long-time senator escaped the fate of former Sen. Robert Bennett.
Republicans May Be Vulnerable On Social Issues In Nov. Elections
Social conservatives are affecting state legislatures and the presidential race, as Mitt Romney face some lack of enthusiasm.
Budget Battle Frames Election Campaigns
The budget debate focuses on competing priorities — spending on defense versus the health law or making chocies between tax cuts for business or safety net programs. Also in the news, spending bills continue to percolate in Congress.
Consumer-Directed Health Plans Surge, Get Boost From Health Law
The concept is also central to Republican-backed market-based reforms. Also in the news, media outlets analyze what’s a stake as the Supreme Court considers challenges to the health law, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reiterates the administration’s confidence that the law will be upheld.
In this post in USAID’s “IMPACTblog,” Heather Bergmann of John Snow Inc., who is the technical officer for USAID’s AIDSTAR-One project, reports on the need to include youth in transition services for adolescents living with HIV. She writes, “Without proper support, many young people can become overwhelmed, a response that can challenge adherence to AIDS medicines and lead to negative health consequences. This is why it’s imperative to create health services that are appropriate and accessible for youth living with HIV.” She adds, “Achieving the goal set out by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year of reducing new HIV infections in children and achieving an AIDS-free generation requires addressing the needs of youth with services that are delivered in ways and in places that are accessible, welcoming, and supportive” (4/19).
In a statement published on the website of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Executive Director Radha Muthiah responds to an article published in the Washington Post on Monday, which highlighted the results of a recent MIT/Harvard study on the public health benefits of clean cookstoves. “[T]he Post article correctly identifies the scourge of cooking on open fires and rudimentary cookstoves as a global health problem that demands urgent attention, highlighting World Health Organization data that shows indoor air pollution kills two million people every year,” she says. “Regrettably, the article seems to indicate that clean cookstoves do not deliver measurable health impacts and therefore concludes that ‘we are not yet ready to distribute clean cookstoves worldwide.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, the timing for clean cookstoves is right, and the time is now,” she says in the statement (Gearity, 4/19).
Research Roundup: Caring For Dual Eligibles; Antitrust Policy And The Law
A selection of health policy research news from the GAO, Urban Institute, The Kaiser Family Foundation and PLoS.
Examining Links Between Agricultural Development, Nutrition
In this post in the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Global Health Policy” blog, Amanda Glassman, the director of global health policy and a research fellow at the center, examines the connection between smallholder farming, agricultural productivity and nutrition. She writes, “For some time now, the food security movement has been stating that improving the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers improves nutritional status.” Glassman cites a statement delivered by G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting Chairs after a meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, which states, “Donor and partner government investments in agricultural development have proven to be one of the most effective means to promote broad-based economic growth, especially when they are nutrition-sensitive and target smallholder farmers and women.” She writes, “Are investments in agricultural development directed to small farmers ‘proven’ to improve nutritional status? I don’t think so,” and asks, “What is the G8 talking about?” (4/18).
