Latest KFF Health News Stories
Post-Supreme Court, Political Debate On Health Law Heats Up
Just a few days after the Supreme Court’s marathon consideration of the health law, news coverage centered around political ramifications.
House OKs Ryan Budget — With Medicare Changes; Entitlement Program Cuts
The budget blueprint, advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is unlikely to gain passage in the Senate but will be a key marker in the upcoming election season.
Justices Hold First Vote Today On Health Law’s Fate
If past practice holds, the Supreme Court will meet privately today to cast a preliminary vote. No one else will be present, and drafts of opinions are likely to be written and rewritten many times in the next few months before the actual decision is issued, likely sometime in June.
Perspectives: All This Fuss About The Word ‘Tax’; Civic Lessons From The Supreme Court
Commentators offer further thoughts about the Supreme Court’s review of the health law.
High Court’s Health Law Consideration Has Political Repercussions
The pending ruling could be a stamp of “repudiation or endorsement” during the upcoming election season. But, if the court overturns the health law, will the GOP be prepared to turn the decision into political victory and could that outcome have a “silver lining” for the Obama administration?
The Republican National Committee uses audio from Supreme Court oral arguments to craft a campaign ad criticizing President Barack Obama and the health law. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has had a health law strategy of its own in place.
Autism Rate Soars To 1 in 88 Children
The number of children with autism in America has climbed 23 percent in the last two years, but the increase could be partially attributable to better diagnoses, officials say.
Economics Lessons For The Court: Broccoli Isn’t The Same As Health Care
Several opinion writers offer insurance primers for the justices.
Ariz. Hospitals Drop Medicaid Cuts Lawsuit; Fla. Gov. Signs Controversial Medicaid Bill
Both states have news happening in their Medicaid programs.
Viewpoints: Ryan’s Budget Called ‘Cruel’ Or ‘Sophisticated’
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
State Roundup: Texas, Minn. Scrutinize Psychiatric Care
A selection of health policy news from Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas and Kansas.
Course Of State Implementation Efforts Unchanged By High Court’s Review
Politico reports that state plans appear unchanged by this week’s events. Those that were moving ahead at full speed will likely continue to do so. Those who were taking a go-slow approach have no need to change strategies now. But for Massachusetts, the justices’ questions regarding the individual mandate have triggered concerns that the challenges to the federal law could spur similar efforts at the state level.
Insurers, Employers React To Idea Of A Health Law Without An Individual Mandate
Insurers’ “worst nightmare” is that the Supreme Court would overturn the health law’s insurance requirement but leave the rest of the overhaul intact. Employers are being advised to continue working toward meeting the law’s deadlines.
Contemplating The Options: What Will Become Of The Health Law?
With the Supreme Court arguments complete, media outlets consider the various scenarios that could play out, and the complications that could arise. To quote the Tom Petty song: “The waiting is the hardest part.”
U.S. Suspends Resumed Food Aid To North Korea
“The United States has suspended planned food aid to North Korea as Pyongyang vows to push ahead with a plan to launch a long-range missile in defiance of international warnings, U.S. military officials said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports (Eckert, 3/29). “Under a deal reached last month, North Korea agreed to a partial nuclear freeze and a moratorium on missile testing in return for U.S. food aid,” but “Pyongyang then announced it would use a long-range rocket to launch a satellite,” VOA’s “Breaking News” blog writes (3/28). Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Lavoy on Wednesday “told lawmakers North Korea had violated [the] moratorium agreement and could not be trusted to deliver the aid properly,” BBC News writes (3/28). The aid package, containing 240,000 tons of food and nutritional products, “was expected to target the most needy in North Korea — including malnourished young children and pregnant women,” VOA News notes (Ide, 3/28).
Study Examines TB Services In Prisons In Countries Receiving Global Fund Grants
According to a study recently published in a special supplement of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, half of countries receiving grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provide tuberculosis (TB) services in prisons; “even when TB services were provided to prisoners, they were limited in scope; and “[f]ew of the programs receiving a grant from the Global Fund offered services dedicated to the treatment and prevention of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB),” an aidsmap news story reports. TB is a leading cause of death among incarcerated individuals worldwide, aidsmap notes. The study authors concluded, “There is an urgent need to better understand the financing needs and cost-effective service delivery models for tuberculosis care in prisons,” according to the story (Carter, 3/30).
U.S. Releases Policy Requiring Dual-Use Biological Research Reviews Amid Bird Flu Debate
“The U.S. government [on Thursday] released a new policy [.pdf] that will require federal agencies to systematically review the potential risks associated with federally funded studies involving 15 ‘high consequence’ pathogens and toxins, including the H5N1 avian influenza virus,” Science Insider reports. “The reviews are designed to reduce the risks associated with ‘dual use research of concern’ (DURC) that could be used for good or evil,” the news service writes (Malakoff, 3/29).
Development Spending In Health Sector Can Lead To Improvements In Other Basic Services
Global health expert Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee to the World Bank presidency, “is attracting criticism from those worried about the ‘healthization’ of the development field,” Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in this post in the center’s “Global Health Policy” blog. Glassman describes the differences between development aid aimed at improving health versus other basic services such as water, sanitation, roads, justice, education, electricity, and lays out several points supporting her position that spending in the health sector leads to improvements in other economic arenas. “‘[H]ealthization’ can’t fairly be characterized as just charity and expansive spending, a marginal field of endeavor not related to the core business,” she writes, adding, “Instead, better health and nutrition are major players in the development story, and the field has lots to offer the broader enterprise” (3/28).
Report Examines Political History Of International AIDS Conferences
In this post in the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) “Smart Global Health” blog, Katherine Bliss, deputy director and senior fellow at the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, discusses a report — titled, “The International AIDS Conference Returns to the United States” — that “examines the political history of the international AIDS conferences from 1985 to the present.” She writes, “The report finds that the most significant conferences from participants’ point of view have featured either major scientific breakthroughs, such as the 1996 Vancouver meeting, or substantial sociopolitical breakthroughs, as in Durban in 2000, when unprecedented civil society engagement helped generate momentum for the development of an international consensus to institute and scale up treatment for HIV-infected populations in resource-limited settings” (3/29).
Somaliland Officials Appeal For Food Aid, Water For Thousands Of Families Affected By Drought
“Officials in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, [in] northwestern Somalia, are appealing for food aid and potable water for thousands of families who have lost their livelihoods in the current drought,” IRIN reports. “In February, [the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP)] provided food assistance to nearly 150,000 people in Somaliland, according to Challiss McDonough, WFP’s senior spokesperson for East, Central and Southern Africa,” according to the news service. Food insecurity in some areas is classified at “crisis level,” with children, expectant and nursing mothers, and the elderly most affected, IRIN notes. “WFP is shifting its focus from emergency assistance towards targeted programs, including building reservoirs, wells and roads which support communities’ resilience to seasonal shocks, according to spokesperson McDonough, who said that in the past year WFP had doubled the number of nutrition programs in Somalia,” the news service writes (3/30).
