Latest KFF Health News Stories
President Obama Releases FY13 Budget Proposal With Overall Decrease For GHI
“President Barack Obama [on Monday] proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2013 that aims to slash the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years,” the Associated Press reports, and provides an agency-by-agency breakdown of the proposed budget (2/13). “Making up just one percent of the U.S. Government’s overall budget, the Department of State/USAID budget totals $51.6 billion,” a U.S. Department of State fact sheet notes (2/13). “Overall, funding for the Global Health Initiative (GHI) is down in the FY 2013 request, with most of the reduction coming from HIV/AIDS bilateral amounts,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Policy Tracker. “Most other areas saw decreases as well, except for family planning and funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance, which increased,” the resource adds. The budget plan proposes a total of approximately $8.5 billion for GHI, down more than $300 million from FY 2012, the resource notes, adding that $6.4 billion of that funding would go to PEPFAR, including about $4.5 billion for HIV and $224 million for tuberculosis. The Global Fund receives $1.65 billion in the request, according to the resource (2/13).
Many Women ‘Want And Need’ Gift Of Reproductive Health This Valentine’s Day
“[T]his Valentine’s Day, perhaps it’s time to celebrate with a gift many of the world’s women desperately want and need: reproductive health,” Robert Engelman, president of the Worldwatch Institute, writes in this Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” opinion piece. Engelman provides global maternal mortality statistics and notes, “Access to family planning and other reproductive health services safeguard the lives of women and their children and promote families that are emotionally and economically healthy.”
Davos Meeting Highlights Link Between Nutrition, Health And Development
“While the headlines out of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings in Davos primarily focus on getting (or keeping) the global economy on track, it’s a welcome development when nutrition and health information also rise to the top of the priorities list, reminding world leaders of the inextricable link between nutrition, health and well-being of the people on our planet and that of our global economy,” Klaus Kraemer, director of Sight and Life, a not-for-profit nutrition think tank, writes in GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog.
Bird Flu Controversy An Opportunity To Set A Higher Tone For Public Debate
In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Leslie Gerwin, associate director of law and public affairs at Princeton University, reflects on the recent controversy over whether to research and publish data about potentially dangerous strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus, writing, “I am disturbed that so much coverage of this dispute — so deserving of sober consideration — is fixated on fear mongering.” She notes, “Those opposing research or publication … predict that publishing results will lead to abuse or misuse by terrorists looking to create a biological weapon. … Those favoring continuation of the project warn of ‘censorship,’ a constitutional no-no particularly when involving the ‘suppression’ of science.”
Feds Recover Record Amounts From Fraudulent Medicare Claims
Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims.
Patient Satisfaction Not Linked With Health Status
A survey in the Archives of Internal Medicine says that the more satisfied patients are less healthy and cost the system more.
UnitedHealth To Offer Industry Cloud Computing Option
The idea is to get health care data out of scattered hospitals, doctors’ offices and insurance claims departments and allow doctors and patients better access to complete information.
Fewer People Getting Health Insurance Through Employer
Fewer people – 44.6 percent of all Americans – are getting health insurance through their employer, a new Gallup poll finds. In other news, as health care costs increase, giving birth at home is becoming a more attractive option despite doctors’ concerns.
Obama 2013 Budget Would Cut $360 Billion From Medicaid And Medicare
Those cuts, which would be made over 10 years, would come primarily from reduced payments to drug companies and health care providers.
U.N. Food Agencies To Hold Meeting On Assistance To Africa’s Sahel Region
“The leaders of United Nations aid agencies, humanitarian organizations and donor governments will meet on Wednesday in Rome to discuss how to urgently scale up assistance in Africa’s Sahel region, where drought and food shortages are threatening millions of lives,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “This gathering comes at a critical moment as humanitarian agencies are gearing up their response in an effort to prevent a crisis becoming a disaster,” U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran said, according to the news service. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization last year warned that irregular rains during 2011 “would lead to a significant drop in production and increased food insecurity,” the news service writes (2/13).
Legislation In Chinese Autonomous Region Would Eliminate Anonymous HIV Testing, Require Names
“Health officials in southern China are proposing new legislation to require real-name registration for HIV testing, a move aimed at lowering infection rates that has sparked controversy over personal privacy,” the Wall Street Journal’s “China Real Time Report” blog reports. It notes that China’s Xinhua News Agency recently reported that the legislation, proposed in China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, also would mandate people testing positive for HIV must inform their spouses and partners.
Fewer Health Care Dollars Would Flow To States Under Obama Budget Plan
Cuts would come in “blended” Medicaid rates, reduced spending for teaching hospitals, and cuts in medical research.
States’ Experiences With High-Risk Pools Vary
One of the early provisions of the health law set up temporary insurance pools for people with medical conditions who couldn’t buy insurance. Politico looks at what the varied state experiences in that program suggest about other aspects of the health overhaul.
Aging Asian Population Raising Concerns Over Pensions, Chronic Health Conditions
“With 60 percent of the world’s population, Asia has one of the largest concentrations globally of aging persons, creating a host of potential challenges, experts warn,” including a lack of income and a rise in health problems among the population, IRIN reports. “One in four people in Asia will be 60 or older by the year 2050, rising from one in 10 in 2010, according to the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,” with more than 65 percent of that population being women, IRIN notes. The article includes quotes from experts on how the region will address concerns over social security and pension schemes and an increase in chronic and mental illnesses among the aging population (2/14).
Debate Shifts On Contraception Rule
While congressional Republicans say the fight isn’t over on the administration’s birth control mandate, the measured support for President Obama’s compromise from some Catholic groups and a few Republicans has tamped down the political furor.
Critics Find Much To Fault In Obama Budget
Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, say the budget doesn’t do enough to hold back entitlement spending. Health care industry groups, meanwhile, call proposed payment cuts unfair and unworkable.
State Roundup: Mass. Small Biz Co-Ops Start, Miss. Medicaid Changes
A selection of stories from Mississippi, Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island, Oregon, Kansas, South Dakota, Georgia and Louisiana.
Senate Republicans Ask Supreme Court To Strike Mandate
In a brief filed Monday, 43 Senate Republicans said that if the Supreme Court allows the mandate to buy health insurance in the Democrats’ health law to stand, then Congress could require Americans to buy almost anything.
Updated Tool To Track NTD Funding, Identify Gaps
The Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program (NTD Control Program), funded by USAID and managed by Research Triangle Institute International (RTI International), has released an updated version of its NTD Funding Gap Analysis Tool (NTD-FGAT), which “helps users accurately estimate the costs and funding gaps of public health programs” and “is intended as a supplementary instrument to improve resource and strategic planning in an already existing national NTD plan,” according to the Global Network for NTDs’ “End the Neglect” blog (2/13).
House GOP Proposes Separating Payroll Tax Extension From ‘Doc Fix,’ Unemployment Debate
But some Republicans are cool to the proposal to extend the lower tax cut without offsetting spending.
