Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Roundup: Calif. Essential Benefits Bill Progresses; Where Are The Doc Waits
A selection of health policy news from California, Arizona, New York, Iowa, Florida and Minnesota.
Shinseki: VA Pushing To Improve Vets’ Access To Care
Appearing in New Hampshire, US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said a major problem for the VA continues to be the backlog of benefit claims.
Berwick: Six Categories Represent 20% Of Nation’s Health Care Expenditures
Former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick said these categories, which include fraud and abuse as well as poor care coordination, offer opportunities for cost-cutting.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the Obama administration’s latest ACO announcement as well as about a new poll exploring Americans’ expectations for the Supreme Court’s health law ruling.
Study: Health Law Would Add $340 Billion To Nation’s Deficit
Although the health overhaul is touted by the Democrats as a means to control health care costs, a study by a Republican member of the board that oversees Medicare financing contends that it will add at least $340 billion to the federal deficit.
Polls And Politics: How The High Court Is Changing Public Health Law Views
Recent polls generally indicate that last month’s oral arguments changed public views about the health law, but it is not clear in which direction. There are also surveys and analysis about the law’s under-26 coverage provision and whether people think seniors with higher incomes should pay more for Medicare.
Children Under Five At Risk Of Malnutrition, Death From Looming Sahel Famine, UNICEF Warns
The Guardian examines child malnutrition in Chad, where “[r]ising therapeutic feeding center admissions highlight the growing urgency of the situation in one of Sahel’s driest, most remote areas.” Chad’s Kanem region “is one of the worst-hit regions in the current food crisis, which UNICEF estimates is affecting approximately 15 million people in the Sahel,” the news service writes. “‘The needs are many and varied in Chad, as we are facing multiple crises,’ said Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, during a visit to Mao,” according to the Guardian. The news service writes, “Chad has a cereal deficit of about 400,000 tons this year, and stocks of only about 40,000 tons” (Hicks, 4/10). “The United Nations has warned that at least one million children under the age of five across Africa’s Sahel region are at risk of dying from severe famine and malnutrition due to drought,” Press TV reports, adding, “UNICEF said it needs $120 million to tackle the looming crisis” (4/10).
In September 2010, “91 percent of Americans surveyed say they support the right for all women to have access to quality maternal and reproductive health care,” PSI’s “Healthy Lives” blog reports. The blog contains a Population Action International infographic depicting the data and writes, “While support is slightly stronger in some parties, the consensus is hard to ignore” (4/9).
WHO Publishes ‘Programmatic Update’ On Use Of ARVs To Treat Pregnant Women, Prevent PMTCT
The WHO “recently published a ‘Programmatic Update’ [.pdf] on the use of antiretrovirals (ARVs) to treat pregnant women and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT),” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports. “According to the executive summary, the WHO has started a comprehensive revision of all ARV guidelines, to include ARVs for pregnant women, which it plans to release in early 2013,” the blog notes (Mazzotta, 4/9).
Support For Global Fund Helps Work Of PEPFAR
In this post on the State Department’s “DipNote” blog, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby provides an update on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, stating, “I am buoyed by the reform that is happening at the Fund under the leadership of new General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo.” He adds, “When PEPFAR and the Fund coordinate, our investments against AIDS are expanded both geographically and programmatically. Simply put, a strong PEPFAR requires a strong Global Fund.” Goosby concludes, “I am proud of the U.S. commitment to the Global Fund, in part because it is a commitment to the work of PEPFAR. We have a unique opportunity in a tight fiscal environment to support the Fund at this critical juncture” (4/9).
Access To Modern Contraceptives, Family Planning Services Is Human Right
“[I]n the developing world, an estimated 215 million women who want to delay or avoid their next pregnancy cannot exercise this right as they lack modern contraceptives, resulting in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and more than 100,000 maternal deaths,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin writes in this Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” blog post. He says that “[t]he United Kingdom government of David Cameron and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced plans for a summit in London in July to raise funds for voluntary family planning” and notes that “UNFPA … fully supports and is a partner in this historic initiative on an often-overlooked human right.”
In this Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” blog post, Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, describes female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), which affects more than 100 million women and girls in Africa and “causes horrific pain and bleeding in the uterus, cervix and lower genital tract, not to mention social stigma and depression.” According to studies, women affected by FGS “have a three- to four-fold increase in the risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS,” but a low-cost drug called praziquantel may prevent FGS “and therefore also serve as a low-cost AIDS prevention strategy if it is administered annually to African girls and women beginning in their school-aged years,” he notes.
Times Of India Examines How Female Health Volunteers Are Improving Maternal, Child Health In India
“In many parts of India, teenagers and housewives are now donning the garb of health volunteers and convincing pregnant women to deliver in hospitals, and not at homes,” the Times of India reports, and profiles Lata Ravikar, “one of the many ordinary women who are leading a silent revolution in urban slums and villages across the country.” The news service writes, “The invisible hand of these women” — called didis — “has already improved maternal and child health indicators, according to a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded initiative that has tracked their impact in two states,” noting, “In Maharashtra, for instance, the proportion of hospital deliveries has gone up from 78 percent to 88 percent in four years in the communities where these workers have been active.”
Participation Of Big Pharma Companies Critical To Success Of Drug Patent Pools
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, David de Ferranti, president of the Results for Development Institute, and Robert Hecht, managing director at the Institute, examine whether patent pools could help increase access to AIDS drugs among the world’s poor, writing, “AIDS program managers and advocates must pursue all measures that can keep the cost of treatment low and affordable. In addition to the actions that are already being taken — like having African governments and donors buy AIDS drugs in bulk from suppliers in order to obtain better prices — could a ‘patent pool’ for new drugs help to make AIDS treatment more accessible?”
Act Now ‘To Prevent Tragedy’ In Africa’s Sahel Food Security Crisis
“The world appears reluctant to open its wallets to relief organizations dedicated to saving the lives of Africa’s children until it’s official. They want the United Nations to declare a famine,” a Globe and Mail editorial states. “UNICEF is to be credited for its preemptive global effort to break this tragic cycle of paralysis and delayed response in the case of the Sahel,” where “[o]ne million children are currently at risk of dying of acute malnutrition,” the editorial continues, and highlights a fundraising campaign launched by the organization last week, called #SahelNOW.
U.S. State Department Fact Sheet Details Bilateral Health Cooperation With Brazil
The State Department on Monday published a fact sheet detailing bilateral health cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil. “For several decades the United States and Brazil have participated in a bilateral dialogue that provides a formal venue for discussing our mutual interests in medical research, disease surveillance, and improving public health,” the fact sheet states, adding, “President Obama and President Rousseff have further advanced our bilateral health cooperation through the U.S.-Brazil Working Group on Public Health, under the U.S.-Brazil Joint Commission on Science and Technology.” The fact sheet details several key collaborations (4/9).
When The Economy Is Tough, Hospitals Woo Well-Insured Patients
A study published in Health Affairs found that during the recession, hospitals have sought to establish themselves in affluent markets.
The Urgency Of Autism: Progress In Combating It, Even As Diagnoses Increase
News outlets examine progress being made in diagnosing autism and understanding its possible causes.
State Roundup: Md. Legislature Approves Health Enterprise Zones
A selection of health policy stories from California, Utah, Maryland, Florida, Missouri and Georgia.
A selection of editorisls and opinions about health care policy from around the country.
