Latest KFF Health News Stories
High Court Swing Votes, Other Dynamics Offer Insights
News outlets offer different views on some of the dynamics in play for the Supreme Court’s health law review.
GOP Lawmakers Face Strategic Fits And Starts In Health Law Repeal Efforts
Meanwhile, as some House Republicans push to undo the measure’s cost-cutting panel, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, advocates are springing to its defense.
Congress Must Protect International Family Planning Funding
“Opponents of birth control don’t just want to limit access in the U.S., they want to slash U.S. support for international family planning programs. It’s a perennial debate, and it’s about to start all over again,” Chloe Cooney, director of global advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes in an RH Reality Check blog post. President Obama’s FY 2013 budget “demonstrates the value the administration places on family planning,” as “funding for international family planning programs is preserved,” she writes, noting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent testimony to Congress about the budget proposal, in which “she consistently reiterated the importance of development as a key pillar of our foreign policy and national security strategy” and “the administration’s focus on women and girls as central to these goals.” Cooney concludes, “The president’s budget protects U.S. investments in family planning programs around the world. Now it’s up to Congress to make sure those funds remain intact” (3/5).
World Bank Should Re-Evaluate Programs To Reduce Maternal Mortality
“The World Bank boasts that it has positioned itself as a ‘global leader’ in reproductive health, especially for youth and the poor,” but in 2011, it dedicated “just 0.2 percent of its $43 billion budget” to reproductive health projects, and much of that money was provided as loans, which can “leave poor countries indebted and threaten to divert domestic spending away from vital public health services,” Elizabeth Arend, program coordinator at Gender Action, writes in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog.” In addition, “[t]here is a striking mismatch between countries’ maternal mortality rates and the bank’s spending on reproductive health,” Arend states, citing the examples of Sierra Leone, where the lifetime average risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth is one in 35 and the World Bank provides $7.43 per person, versus Niger, Liberia, or Somalia, where women “face an average lifetime one in 17 risk of maternal death, yet these countries receive no reproductive health funding from the bank at all.”
Minn. GOP Offers Premium Savings Accounts As Alternative To Exchanges
Minnesota Republicans are offering state-based health premium savings accounts as an alternative to a health care exchange that Democrats in the state want to implement as part of the federal health reform law.
E-Health Records Don’t Always Equal Reduced Costs
A study published in Health Affairs found that electronic health records don’t necessary lead to reducing health care spending or fewer diagnostic tests.
Quality Data Has Little Impact On Mortality Rates
Research published in the latest issue of Health Affairs concluded that the performance data published on the Hospital Compare website did not result in fewer patient deaths.
South Africa Announces Initiative To Test Thousands Of Miners For TB
“South Africa wants to test hundreds of thousands of miners for tuberculosis [TB] and ensure sufferers get treatment over the next year,” David Mametja, head of South African National Department of Health’s TB program, said Tuesday at a workshop organized by the Stop TB Partnership, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. Mametja “said the government is concerned the high prevalence of the disease among miners is holding an entire region back in the fight against TB,” and that while “it may be impossible to reach the nearly 600,000 miners in South Africa in one year, even those at highest risk in the gold industry, … setting an ambitious target is a way to show ‘it’s not business as usual,'” the AP writes.
Drugmakers Paid Out $8 Billion In Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Fines In 10 years
USA Today reports that despite these penalties, the nation’s largest drug makers are still in business with the federal government.
Medicaid: Lawmakers Ask Kansas Gov. To Wait On ‘Ambitious’ Changes
Examining cuts and changes to Medicaid programs in Maine, Kansas and other states.
Cigna CEO Got Pay Boost In 2011
The compensation package of Cigna CEO David M. Cordani jumped 25 percent last year to $19.1 million.
Health System Framework, Patterns Make Change From Within Unlikely
The New York Times talks to Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University, about the cost control challenges presented by the health system. Meanwhile, the National Journal reports on how individual health care choices also help drive costs.
Viewpoints: Contraception Politics; Better Food Labels; Opposing Stands On Ultrasounds And Abortion
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
Despite Controversy, Report Says Young Catholic Women Support Birth Control Use
According to the report by the Guttmacher Institute, these women perceive the recent debate surrounding contraception coverage as a political one. Meanwhile, analysis continues about Rush Limbaugh’s comments on the subject.
State News: Several Mass. Hospitals Tie Part Of Doctor Pay To Size Of Practice
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Fla. Anti-Abortion Bill Stopped In Senate
A poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood in Texas says voters want to keep the provider in the state’s Women’s Health Program while an anti-abortion bill in Florida is stopped in the Senate.
Oregon Seeks Federal Approval Of ‘Coordinated Care Plan’
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is looking for federal approval of a recently signed law there that provides care for Medicaid patients through new “coordinated care organizations.” The Oregon Legislature also approved a health insurance exchange bill before it adjourned.
Health Law, Contraception Coverage Central Themes In Mass. Senate Race
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and his challenger, Elizabeth Warren are tussling on these issues in the midst of what is emerging as a high-profile campaign.
HHS: 105 Million People No Longer Face Health Insurance Lifetime Limits
A Department of Health and Human Services report released Monday quantified the number of Americans with health insurance who no longer face these benefit limits.
Federal Health Law, Mass. Overhaul Parallels Still A Flashpoint For Romney
The Massachusetts health law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney is a hot topic on the campaign trail leading up to Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, new polling results indicate President Barack Obama’s support among women voters is on the rise.
