Latest KFF Health News Stories
States are in various stages of implementing, or opposing, aspects of the health care law.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the U.S.
In addition, a hospital in Plano, Texas makes a major marketing deal.
Reid Will Allow Repeal Vote On Contraception Mandate
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow a vote on a Republican amendment to allow employers to opt out of health coverage mandates – including one requiring free coverage of birth control for women – that they find immoral.
Zimbabwean health officials responding to typhoid outbreaks in the capital of Harare that have affected more than 2,000 people “have called on the local and central governments to overhaul water and sanitation systems” to stem the spread of the disease, VOA News reports. Portia Manangazira, chief of epidemiology and disease control in the Ministry of Health, “said Zimbabwean and international health authorities responded well to the crisis,” which has raised “fears for many Zimbabweans of the deadly 2008-2009 cholera epidemic which hit tens of thousands and left more than 4,200 people dead,” the news service writes.
Seven Sahel Region Nations Declare Emergencies With At Least 12M People Threatened By Hunger
“Seven out of the eight governments in [Africa’s] Sahel … have taken the unprecedented step of declaring emergencies as 12 million people in the region are threatened by hunger,” Inter Press Service reports. “Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria have all called for international assistance to prevent yet another hunger crisis on the continent,” the news service writes, noting that Senegal “has refrained from announcing an emergency, largely for political reasons,” as it is holding presidential elections later this year (Palitza, 4/15).
Reuters Examines Upcoming WHO Meeting To Discuss Debate Over Bird Flu Research
Bird flu experts are scheduled to begin a two-day meeting at the WHO in Geneva on Thursday “to try to settle an unprecedented row over a call to [censor] publication of two scientific studies which detail how to mutate H5N1 bird flu viruses into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic,” Reuters reports in an article describing the debate in detail. “But experts say whatever the outcome, no amount of censorship, global regulation or shutting down of research projects could stop rogue scientists getting the tools to create and release a pandemic H5N1 virus if they were intent on evil,” the news service adds.
First Edition: February 15, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations include news of a tentative agreement on Capitol Hill on a measure that would extend the payroll tax cuts and stop planned cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.
Capsules: Californians Don’t Talk About End-Of-Life Wishes
Though 82 percent of Californians think it’s important to write down what kind of measures they do or don’t want when they’re dying, only 23 percent have done so.
USAID Improves Health Through Access To Clean Water In Timor-Leste
In this post in USAID’s “IMPACTblog,” Carlos dos Reis, foreign service national environmental health officer for Timor-Leste, reports on a trip to the country’s remote district of Oecusse with U.S. Ambassador Judith Fergin and USAID/Timor-Leste Mission Director Rick Scott to “inaugurate the new clean water supply system built with the support of USAID.” He writes, “Having the chance to see the completed water supply system and witness the benefits that people get from having access to clean water, I’m beginning to believe that a seemingly impossible thing can become possible when people work together,” and adds, “I believe that the cooperation between USAID and Oecusse District SAS has really improved the lives of many residents in [the town of] Bobometo by giving them access to clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene” (2/13).
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).
