Latest KFF Health News Stories
Va. Gov. Signs Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Bill
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed a contentious bill mandating women who want an abortion get an ultrasound before the procedure.
Consumer Coalition Sues Drugmakers Over Coupon Programs
The lawsuit claims that these popular programs, which appear to save money for patients, actually increase costs and conceal information about the discounts from health plans.
Hospital Groups Will Get Bigger; Unlikely Partnerships Could Emerge, Says Moody’s
A new report by Moody’s outlines how not-for-profit hospitals are being driven by reimbursement pressures and healthcare reform to join forces with health insurers and for-profit companies, among others.
CDC: Medical Bills Present Hardship To Many Families
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the financial stress caused by high medical costs.
States Consider Dental Care Access Issues
Bettering the health of America’s poorest through greater access to dental care is on the minds of state lawmakers and dental care advocates in Kansas and Massachusetts as they consider legislation to expand who can practice basic dentistry.
Surgeon General Finds Much Work Needed To Stop Teen Smoking
The federal report documents an “epidemic” of tobacco use among teens, which it says can stunt lung growth and accelerate development of health problems.
Challenges To Achieving An AIDS-Free Generation
In a plenary presentation at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle on Wednesday, Dorothy Mbori-Ngacha of UNICEF examined the challenges to reaching the goal of an AIDS-free generation, by “eliminat[ing] 90 percent of HIV infections among children by 2015,” and “outlined the four pillars of achieving that goal,” including preventing HIV among women, preventing unintended pregnancies, preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), and supporting HIV-positive women and their families, the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” reports. She called for strengthening family planning programs in the context of PMTCT, prioritizing “pregnant women for access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or microbicides,” implementing strategies to initiate and care for women in treatment programs, and intervening early in pregnancy, according to the blog (Lubinski, 3/7).
State Legislatures Take On Employee Health Plans, Medicaid Reform, Malpractice
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy news.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
Food Assistance Critical Component Of U.S. Global Development, National Security Strategies
“While only a small part of the Farm Bill, food assistance is a critical component of our nation’s global development and national security strategies, reaching 50 million people a year,” Ellen Levinson, executive director of Alliance for Global Food Security and president of Levinson & Associates, writes in the Hill’s “Congress Blog,” adding, “Improvements made to international food aid programs in the 2008 Farm Bill have borne fruit.” She notes, “By 2050, world population is expected to reach nine billion and food production will have to increase by 50-70 percent to keep pace.”
Longer Looks: Santorum’s Pro-Government Record
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web.
Critics Raise Alarms About Downsizing Of Calif. Adult Day Health Care Program
Some say the state has predetermined how many people it can serve and is manipulating the process for assessing clients so the results fit within the new program’s slimmer budget.
World Commemorates International Women’s Day
Speaking at an event at U.N. Headquarters to commemorate International Women’s Day, which is observed annually on March 8, “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [on Wednesday] joined other senior United Nations officials … in highlighting the potential of rural women to improve the well-being of entire societies if given equal access to resources and set free from the discrimination and exploitation that hold them back,” the U.N. News Centre writes, noting this year’s theme is “Empower Rural Women — End Hunger and Poverty.” “He acknowledged that women are increasingly exercising greater influence in business, government, politics, public administration and other professions” and that “more girls are going to school and are growing up healthier and better equipped to realize their potential,” the news service writes (3/7).
Integration Of HIV, Family Planning Services Will ‘Save Women’s Lives’
“Women who are at risk of unplanned pregnancy are also at risk of HIV, and vice-versa so separation of these services no longer makes sense. The global health community must work to bring family planning and HIV services together — and quickly — to save women’s lives,” by Dana Hovig, chief executive of Marie Stopes International, and Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, write in this RH Reality Check blog post marking International Women’s Day. The authors conclude, “We call on the public to urge leaders to support integration of services in the developing world. We encourage organizations working with us to support the integration of family planning and HIV services” (3/7).
Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, on Thursday said talks with North Korean officials over food aid had “resolved the administrative issues we were concerned with,” although “[h]e declined to disclose details before reporting back to Washington,” the Associated Press reports. “The talks follow a deal announced last week in which the U.S. offered 240,000 tons of food aid in return for North Korea freezing long-range missile and nuclear tests and for halting a uranium enrichment program that would be monitored by U.N. inspectors,” the news agency writes. “The U.S. … wanted to ensure that the assistance reaches North Koreans who need it, rather than being diverted to the military or other groups as was suspected with some previous international aid shipments,” and while King “said that those concerns about the shipments had been resolved, … he did not discuss how deliveries would be monitored,” according to the AP (3/8).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including a report about the “new front” in the battle surrounding the Obama administration’s birth control coverage rule — it’s the courts
House Moves Closer to IPAB Repeal Vote
The Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill Tuesday to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an advisory group created in the health care law to curb Medicare spending. The full House is expected to vote on the legislation as early as the end of March.
Romney Claims Super Tuesday Wins, But Santorum Presses Health Reform Issues
GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum used election night speech to again assail the former governor’s support of a Massachusetts health overhaul that some say was a template for the federal law.
Texas Plan To Defund Women’s Health Program Draws Protest
Texas’ move and subsequently imminent loss of federal Medicaid money has sparked a protest. Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Minnesota are examining the federal contraception coverage requirement.
Preliminary Results Of Partners PrEP Study Show Promise, Investigators Report At CROI
“Investigators gave more details about the positive results of the Partners PrEP Study Tuesday at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle,” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports. “The study of 4,700 HIV discordant couples (where one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not) looked at the potential of two different antiretrovirals for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV-1 prevention versus a placebo among heterosexual men and women in rural and urban Kenya and Uganda,” the blog notes. So far, results show 75 percent protection in the arm using two antiretrovirals and 67 percent protection in the one-antiretroviral arm, when compared with the placebo, the blog notes, adding that the “drug arms of the study are ongoing and will wrap up at the end of this year” (Mazzotta, 3/6).
