Latest KFF Health News Stories
Eradication Of River Blindness In Africa Is Feasible
In this AlertNet opinion piece, Simon Bush, director of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) at Sightsavers, an international NGO helping people with visual impairments in developing countries, examines efforts to rid Africa of onchocerciasis — a blinding NTD. “In 1947 when Sightsavers’ founder, Sir John Wilson, coined the phrase river blindness to describe the almost unpronounceable disease, … there was little choice for those living in areas where what we now call a neglected tropical disease was endemic,” he writes, adding, “Today, although the World Health Organization estimates that 120 million people are at risk of river blindness, there is hope.”
In a speech delivered at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome on Thursday, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told IFAD, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that the “approach being used today to fight against poverty and hunger is outdated and inefficient” and asked the agencies “to unite around a common global target for sustainable productivity growth to guide and measure their efforts,” a Gates Foundation press release states. “Gates also announced nearly $200 million in grants, bringing to more than $2 billion the foundation’s commitment to smallholder farmers since the agriculture program began in 2006,” according to the press release (2/23).
First Edition: February 24, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports detailing what becomes of the deficit — particularly at this time of rising Medicare costs for the aging population — under the plans being advanced by the GOP presidential candidates.
Feds Award Health Exchange Grants To 10 States
The Department of Health and Human Services is sending $229 million in exchange establishment grants to 10 states — half of which are receiving this funding for a second time around. However, an Associated Press analysis found that progress among states in setting up these health insurance marketplaces remains uneven.
Supreme Court Sends Calif. Medicaid Case Back To Lower Court
At issue was a federal appeals court ruling allowing patients and health care providers to sue over California’s cuts in Medicaid payment rates. The high court sent the case back to the court in San Francisco to consider whether private parties or only the federal government can object to Medicaid reductions.
State Legislatures Contemplate Controlling Costs, Health IT, Prescribing Authority
A selection of health policy stories from Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Kansas and Arizona.
Health Issues Create Political Flashpoints During GOP Presidential Primary Debate
GOP candidates sparred during last night’s face-off over a range of issues including the Massachusetts health law that Mitt Romney signed while that state’s governor, family planning and contraception, and abortion.
Va. Lawmakers Backdown From Requiring Invasive, Pre-Abortion Ultrasound
Virginia lawmakers backed off a proposal Wednesday to require women seeking abortions get an transvaginal ultrasound after Gov. Bob McDonnell said he wouldn’t support it. Virginia House lawmakers instead approved an amended bill requiring only an external ultrasound.
A Democratic lawmaker has proposed denying men vasectomies as a parody of a Republican bill that would prohibit abortions for women more than 20 weeks pregnant. Elsewhere, a Wisconsin bill would require physicians to give women a physical exam and be present when giving abortion-inducing drugs.
Federal Rules For HIT ‘Meaningful Use’ Expected Today
This long-awaited guidance will be published as a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register.
Wash. Law Requiring Pharmacies Stock Emergency Contraception Struck Down
The judge said the law was meant to force religious objectors to dispense the drug Plan B instead of simply give access to those that need it. In other cases, other federal judges blocked a challenge to a Mass. law on abortion buffer zones and said the government can’t deny health benefits to a lesbian couple.
Governor of Illinois Urges Medicaid Cuts
Pat Quinn, the Democratic governor, underscored the need for cuts to Medicaid and the state worker pension system, but some critics said his proposals did not offer enough specifics about how to reduce the state’s underfinanced liabilities.
Draft National Plan To Fight Alzheimer’s Released
A framework for the plan was unveiled in January. This more fleshed-out version builds on that outline, makes treatment a top priority and focuses on the burden the disease places on families and caregivers.
Vt., Okla. Lawmakers Mull Creating Health Insurance Exchanges
Lawmakers in Vermont and Oklahoma are the latest to grapple with creating a state health insurance exchange. In Vermont, the governor is defending his proposal for an exchange for small businesses while Oklahoma lawmakers are mulling creating their own so the federal government doesn’t do it for them.
Viewpoints: A Missing Contraception Question, Obama’s Budget Blind Spot, NEJM On Medicare Advantage
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the U.S.
Scalia Could Be Unlikely Health Law Ally
Bloomberg reports that, based on a previous opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia could be key to the fate of the health law.
Saving Lives At Birth Partnership Launches Second Round Grants
“Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development [on Wednesday] launched its second call for innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, hard-to-reach communities around the world,” a USAID press release states. With the launch of the second round of the Saving Lives at Birth partnership, “the partners aim to invest at least $50 million in groundbreaking and sustainable projects with the potential to accelerate substantial progress against maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths at the community level,” according to the press release (2/22).
Researchers Begin Clinical Trial Of First Visceral Leishmaniasis Vaccine
“Researchers say they’ve developed the first vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) — a disease that affects 500,000 people each year and has been called the ‘parasitic version of HIV,'” although the diseases are unrelated, U.S. News reports. “The vaccine took researchers more than two decades to develop and entered Phase I trials in recent weeks, according to Steve Reed, founder of the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), the vaccine’s developer,” the news service writes (Koebler, 2/22).
Global Fund Releases More Than $7M To South Africa Following Request From AIDS Organizations
“More than seven months overdue, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant will finally be released to key South African AIDS organizations that have been struggling to survive,” PlusNews writes, adding, “Some were on the verge of shutting down.” According to the news service, “The Global Fund released US$7,106,426.91 to the South African National Treasury on February 6, the same day seven of the grant’s sub-recipients delivered an open letter to Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi, pleading for intervention.”
South Sudan Hoping NTD Initiative Will Bring Relief From High Levels Of Disease, IRIN Reports
“Decades of war, neglect, and lack of development have left South Sudan with nine out of 10 of th[e] key neglected tropical diseases [NTDs] — all but Chagas disease, which is endemic to South America,” and health workers in the new nation are hoping that the recent formation of a large public-private partnership to combat the diseases “will finally help to have an impact on South Sudan’s appalling health indicators,” IRIN reports. With only one in four people in South Sudan able to access health care, people “seek other explanations for diseases such as sleeping sickness, as they are liable to blame its symptoms on witchcraft and only seek medical attention as a last resort,” the news service writes. The nation has the highest incidence of guinea worm disease and the third-highest incidence of sleeping sickness, according to IRIN (2/23).
