Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare To Expand Use Of Competitive Bidding
A year-long experiment found that the competitive bidding approach saved money without harming beneficiaries. It also made inroads against waste and fraud.
Survey: Gaps In Health Insurance Coverage, Knowledge Persist
A Commonwealth Fund survey found that many U.S. adults didn’t have health insurance over the course of a year.
Honduras Becomes First LAC Country To Launch National Plan To Combat NTDs
“A major milestone was achieved on April 12, when Honduras became the first country in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region to officially launch an integrated national plan to combat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs),” the the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect” blog reports. “Mirian Yolanda Paz, vice minister of health, led the activities and laid out the path to end nine NTDs endemic to Honduras (soil-transmitted helminths, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, cysticercosis, neonatal and nonneonatal tetnus, congenital syphilis and rabies),” the blog writes, noting, “The plan includes a budget for proposed activities and is estimated at $20 million over a five year period” (4/17).
Vatican Rebukes Group Of Nuns On Support For Health Law
The Catholic Church hierarchy cracks down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group of nuns who supported the 2010 health reform.
Health Law Implementation News: Most Red States Slow Walk Health Exchanges
Politico reports that most GOP-controlled states are holding off on building insurance exchanges until the Supreme Court issues its decision. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to enforce the health law is the topic of a Capitol Hill hearing, and a former White House adviser offers his views during a Madison speech.
State Roundup: State Spending Drops $290 Billion In 5 Years
News outlets examine a variety of state health policy issues, including articles from California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Oregon.
WellPoint’s Political Spending Draws Scrutiny
The Washington Post reports that this health insurer is the latest target in an aggressive campaign to force corporate disclosures regarding lobbying and political expenditures.
Obama And Romney Start Long-Distance Debate Over Medicare
President Barack Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have started a long-distance health care debate, fighting over how to reform the Medicare system. Other politicians are getting in on the act too, as Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Mass. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren weight in on the health reform law.
Neb., Ohio And Minn. State Legislatures Tackle Abortion, Contraception Restrictions
In various states, lawmakers are concentrating on abortion or contraception bills. Meanwhile, some Texas chapters of Planned Parenthood are merging.
Leahy Introduces Generic Drug Label Legislation
The measure, which was introduced in the Senate and has a House companion, would permit generic drug companies to update safety information about the drugs they manufacture, enabling patients to sue the companies for failing to issue warnings about risks. It aims to address a gap in the law that allows people to sue brand-name drug makers for insufficient warnings, but not generics manufacturers.
N.Y. Medicaid Audit Finds $42M In Improper Payments
Auditors in New York have found $42 million in improper payments were doled out to Medicaid providers. In the meantime, Minnesota’s human services commissioner will testify before a congressional committee next week about financing and a payment made to the state by a managed care plan with Medicaid contract.
Budget Consideration Continues In Both The Senate And The House
In the Senate, a “voteless” markup was held on Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad’s, D-N.D., presentation of the Bowles-Simpson plan. Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., says he will bring the House GOP budget plan advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., up for a vote by the full Senate later this year.
Viewpoints: Bishops Find Fault With GOP Budget; Pelosi On Court’s Role In Health Law
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
Longer Looks: Rushed Medicine; Exercising Your Way To A Smarter Brain
This week’s selections include articles from Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, The Atlantic and The New Yorker.
Studies Suggesting Limited Impact Of Clean Cookstoves Demonstrate Need For More Research
In this post in the Center for Global Development’s “Views from the Center” blog, Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center, 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. He writes that “the results of the MIT study will come as a disappointment to the clean cookstove movement,” but “they shouldn’t come as a surprise.” He highlights several previous studies on the issue and writes, “[T]he record of limited impact does suggest that we’ve got a long road ahead before we figure out what works and where when it comes to reducing indoor air pollution” (4/18).
Blog Examines Potential Effects Of AIDS Funding Cuts, Shortfalls
The Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog examines a memorandum (.pdf) from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), distributed “to a targeted list of congressional leaders with jurisdiction over PEPFAR or the appropriations committees that fund it,” “that makes the case for continued funding for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program at least at fiscal year (FY) 2012 funding levels.” The blog uses the “HIV/AIDS funding summaries [.pdf] of the Department of State Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations” and a recent report from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to examine how budget cuts and a funding shortfall for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria may affect funding for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Kenya (Mazzotta, 4/18).
“The World Bank plans to strengthen its social safety net to help the 60 percent of people in the developing world who lack adequate protection from the impact of global financial volatility and rising food and fuel prices,” Bloomberg reports. “Expanding cash transfers, food assistance, public works programs and fee waivers to help nations respond to crises and fight persistent poverty will be the center of the agenda for the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Development Committee meeting on April 21, the bank said [Wednesday] in Washington,” according to the news agency (Martin, 4/18). “Safety nets can transform people’s lives and provide a foundation for inclusive growth without busting budgets. … Effective safety net coverage overcomes poverty, and promotes economic opportunity and gender equality by helping people find jobs and cope with economic shocks, and improving the health, education, and well-being of their children,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick said, the Guardian notes (Elliott, 4/18).
NewScientist reports on the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity’s (NSABB) recommendation that revised versions of two controversial studies on H5N1 avian flu be published in scientific journals, reversing its previous recommendation that the studies only be published if certain details were withheld. According to the news service, dissent among the board members over the issue has prompted the committee to “propos[e] talks to draft global guidelines for doing and communicating work involving dangerous pathogens.”
U.N. SG Ban Warns Of ‘Cascading Crisis’ Of Drought, Conflict In African Sahel
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week “called on the global community to act quickly to address what he described as a ‘cascading crisis’ sweeping the Sahel region of West Africa, where 15 million people have been affected by the drought and conflict-related crisis in the area,” the U.N. News Centre reports. Speaking to the Luxembourg Parliament on Tuesday, Ban said, “I call upon the world to respond. Simply put, we must do more — and do it quickly” (4/17). On Wednesday, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake appeared on BBC World News to discuss the drought and malnutrition among children. “Lake tells the BBC’s Jane O’Brien that his organization is trying to fight ‘donor fatigue,’ after years of crises in the region by” portraying the success stories of children in the region and through a social media campaign to raise awareness and funds, the news service notes (4/18).
Experts Discuss Interconnectedness Of Gender Issues, Family Planning, Access To Safe Water
“In the last of its series called ‘7 Billion: Conversations That Matter,’ Aspen Institute’s Global Health and Development [on Wednesday] hosted a panel of experts based in Africa and the United States on the interconnectedness of gender issues, family planning, population, and access to safe water,” GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog reports. According to the blog, “The point of the series was to ask questions about why it mattered that the world was passing the seven billion mark, and the questions [addressed] in Washington were appropriately big: Will water wars replace oil wars? What are the solutions to expand water and sanitation to the 2.5 billion people who don’t have it? And just how many people can the world support in an equitable fashion?” The blog recaps the discussion, providing quotes from several of the panelists, and writes, “The panelists kept coming back to the connections among access to water, family planning, and finding ways to use resources more efficiently” (Donnelly, 4/18).
