Latest KFF Health News Stories
Cookstove Technology Needs More Research, Development To Be Effective In Real-World Settings
A recent randomized trial by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers looking at how well clean cookstoves worked in real-world settings found that while there was “a meaningful reduction in smoke inhalation in the first year after a stove was installed, … [o]ver a longer period … they saw no health benefits and no reduction in fuel use” because families did not maintain or repair broken stoves, a Bloomberg editorial notes, adding, “This doesn’t suggest the clean cookstove campaign should be abandoned so much as slowed down. It would be wise to test various designs in real-life settings, and, where necessary, take more time to human-proof models.”
Heritage: Stop Subsidies For ‘Multimillionaire Seniors’ To Shore Up Medicare Program
A report by the conservative Heritage Foundation recommends making wealthier Medicare beneficiaries pay more to help get the program’s “fiscal house in order.” Also in the news, The Wall Street Journal reports that a judge who considers cases related to the Social Security Disability Insurance Program — one of the federal governments most rapidly growing entitlement programs — was placed on paid leave while complaints about his demeanor are probed.
Minn. Hospital Workers Weigh Strike
Unionized workers at eight Twin Cities hospitals — including nursing assistants, food service employees and other support staff — are taking a vote on whether to strike over management’s contract offer.
Okla. Judge Strikes Down Law That Restricted Drug-Induced Abortion
The court said the new law did not meet the state constitution’s guarantee of “the fundamental rights of women to privacy and bodily integrity,” the Tulsa World reports.
Business Trend To Offer Health Benefits To Same-Sex Couples Leaves Feds Behind
Although President Barack Obama’s pronouncement last week in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage does not reverse current federal policy which denies health benefits to domestic partners, some advocates hope it will be a “morale boost.” And many employers already offer such benefits to attract and retain top workers.
HHS Announcing Finalized Alzheimer’s Plan
The plan, which includes an emphasis on research, sets 2025 as the target date for finding effective treatments for this disease.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Romney, Obama Medicare Plans Trigger Analysis
The New York Times analyzes the specifics of the Medicare plans advanced by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla., is facing attack ads associated with his vote on the health law.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports from Capitol Hill about the continuing pressures surrounding health care costs and deficit issues.
GOP’s Medicare Plan Has Some Candidates Playing Defense
The budget plan advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has become a hot topic in many congressional races. One example is the Illinois race between Rep. Joe Walsh, a Republican, and Democratic challenger and Iraqi war veteran Tammy Duckworth.
Third Of World Carrying TB; Disease Could Become Incurable Without Action, WHO Warns
“A third of the world’s population is carrying tuberculosis [TB], and the disease could become incurable if governments fail to act, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned,” noting that a “[l]ack of funding for public health programs, the sale of inaccurate blood tests and the misuse of drugs, particularly in the private health sector, are hampering the fight against the disease and leading to drug resistance,” the Independent reports. “The rate of TB deaths had declined dramatically — by 40 percent between 1990 and 2000 — after a worldwide health campaign, which was particularly successful in China,” but “the emergence of drug-resistant strains threatens to halt progress and jeopardizes the WHO’s goal of eradicating the disease as a public health problem by 2050,” the newspaper writes, noting, “Two billion people are carriers of the TB bacillus” globally.
Rule Requires Insurers To Credit Health Law When Issuing Consumer Rebates
The rule, which was finalized Friday, will result in an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates for nearly 16 million Americans.
Opinion Pieces Published In Recognition Of Mother’s Day
The following are summaries of several opinion pieces published in recognition of Mother’s Day, observed May 13.
Huffington Post’s ‘Global Motherhood’ Section Featured Opinion Pieces Leading Up To Mother’s Day
Leading up to Mother’s Day on May 13, the Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood” section, in partnership with Mothers Day Every Day, an initiative of the White Ribbon Alliance and CARE, published opinion pieces from a diverse group of people. The following are summaries of two of those opinion pieces.
Examining Health Sector Funding Agreement Between Liberia, USAID
“[A] new and complementary agreement between Liberia and USAID, called the Fixed Amount Reimbursement Agreement (FARA),” is “quite revolutionary,” Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and Jacob Hughes, write in CGD’s “Global Health Policy” blog. They note a recent working paper they authored with Walter Gwenigale in which they “describe Liberia’s unique experience in pooling donor funds for health in a post-conflict setting, with good results.” They ask why USAID did not make payments directly into the Health Sector Pool Fund mechanism, stating, “The FARA contribution to the pool could have created complementary, virtuous incentives to achieve the pool fund results as efficiently as possible, which would be a credit to the government and all the participating donors, and would set a precedent for USAID to participate in pooling in other countries” (5/11).
“The presidents of Indonesia and Liberia — Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — and the prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, are to co-chair a U.N. panel to advise on approaches to development after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire in 2015,” SciDev.Net reports. “Announcing the chairs to the U.N. General Assembly [on Wednesday], Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary general, also said he would appoint an assistant secretary-general for post-2015 development planning,” the news service writes, adding, “The panel will consider the mixed success of the eight MDGs, which were set in 2000 and provide targets for reducing poverty and promoting social development through such areas as education, reduction of HIV infection rates and infant mortality” (Irwin, 5/12).
USAID Reports To Congress On Global Health, Child Survival
“In the last 20 years, the world has saved more than 50 million children’s lives and reduced maternal mortality by one-third,” “accomplishments [that] have been the result of good science, good management, bipartisan political support, the engagement of USAID and many other U.S. Government agencies, and the participation of faith-based organizations, civil society, and the private sector,” according to a summary of USAID’s “Global Health and Child Survival: Progress Report to Congress 2010-2011.” The summary states, “With prospects for ending preventable child and maternal deaths, creating an AIDS-free generation, and laying the foundations for universal health coverage, future generations will look back at this period as a turning point in the history of global health” (5/10).
“The cholera epidemic in Haiti, which began in late 2010, is bad and getting worse, for reasons that are well understood and that the aid community has done far too little to resolve,” a New York Times editorial states, adding that the “Pan American Health Organization has said the disease could strike 200,000 to 250,000 people this year” and “has already killed more than 7,000.” The editorial says the U.N. “bears heavy responsibility for the outbreak,” as it is suspected that U.N. peacekeepers introduced the disease to the island nation, and it notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this month that “cholera in Haiti was evolving into two strains, suggesting the disease would become much harder to uproot and that people who had already gotten sick and recovered would be vulnerable again.”
When the International AIDS Conference convenes in Washington in July, the first time the U.S. will host the conference in more than 20 years, “it will signal that the U.S. has brought its HIV policies into better alignment with the principles it advocates abroad,” Politico reports, referencing the lifting of the “Helms rule” — which denied U.S. visas to people who are HIV positive — in 2009. “The policy was especially painful to advocates because U.S. scientific and financial investments are largely responsible for stemming the tide of the epidemic around the world,” the news service writes. “But the meeting will also highlight other ways that the U.S. has fallen short, advocates say,” the news service writes, noting that the U.S. epidemic is not slowing. Politico discusses the successes and criticisms of several domestic HIV/AIDS initiatives under the Obama administration (Feder, 5/13).
U.S. Falling Behind In Global Effort To Guarantee Health Coverage
The Los Angeles Times reports on this development.
