Latest KFF Health News Stories
President’s Budget To Call For Medicare, Medicaid Cuts – But No Major Changes
The multi-trillion-dollar proposal will be unveiled Monday.
Obama Announces Shift In Contraception Rule
KHN tracked the related news coverage.
Coakley and Cuccinelli Debate The Health Law
Two prominent state attorneys general examined the health law case before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that some senators are pushing to get television cameras in the Supreme Court.
New Contraceptive Rule Has Precedents In Federal, State Law
NPR reports that not much has changed in the new regulation other than requiring coverage for contraceptives at no cost, while CNN reports on the escalating “rhetorical war” in Washington.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
ProPublica examines Komen’s shifting history with Planned Parenthood. In other news, Planned Parenthood’s services for men are examined and a Republican congresswoman is asking for a larger investigation of the organization.
Obama Readies Compromise On Birth Control Mandate
The Obama administration Friday morning signaled that it will require health plans to offer free birth control in plans as a compromise in the dispute with religious leaders.
Health Spending, Insurance Profits Down
Health spending has declined, according to a new study, and it appears to be affecting insurance company bottom lines.
President’s Budget Not Expected To Tackle Entitlement Costs
News outlets are reporting that the budget President Barack Obama will release Monday will leave Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending “largely untouched.”
Birth Control Mandate Is A Rallying Cry In Presidential Campaigns
Rick Santorum uses the issue to try to rally the conservative base, while some Democratic strategists call the White House’s embrace of contraceptive coverage a political plus with young, female voters.
Some Senate Democrats Split From White House On Contraception Rule
West Virginia’s Joe Manchin introduced a bill to block the new rule on contraception coverage, while many other senators say they would like to see a compromise between the administration and opponents of the rule.
Aid For Water, Sanitation Programs Must Benefit The Poor
In this post in the ONE blog, Brooks Keene, policy adviser for CARE’s water team, “makes the argument that foreign aid should benefit the poor first and foremost,” noting, “As we approach World Water Day on March 22, CARE, [the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)] and WaterAid have published a report card [.pdf] on how well” the Water for the Poor Act, passed by Congress in 2005, “has been implemented seven years down the line.” She writes, “In the absence of a strategy, USAID has gone ahead with water, sanitation and hygiene programs, but much of the effort and dollars have not gone to benefit the poor.” She concludes by recommending several steps USAID could take “to spur concerted targeting” (2/9).
Catholics Choosing Sides In Contraception Battle As Bishops Lead Fight Against Administration
The conflict has American Catholics choosing sides. Catholics, who are often swing voters in presidential elections, narrowly support the White House position in polls.
Censorship Of Public Health Websites By Russian Drug Agency An ‘Assault’ On HIV Prevention
“Amidst pro-democracy protests, the Russian authorities have taken what is an ongoing assault on HIV prevention to the next level by moving to silence public health advocates whose only infraction has been to spread lifesaving information online and to criticize the government for its own failures,” Eka Iakobishvili, a human rights analyst at Harm Reduction International, and Claudia Stoicescu, an analyst on Harm Reduction International’s public health research team, write in this Huffington Post opinion piece. “While Prime Minister Putin spoke glowingly of digital democracy” in a recent column praising the potential for “internet-based democracy,” “his anti-drugs agency is censoring websites for writing about WHO essential medicine,” the authors note.
News from state legislatures in Washington state, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Leavitt Says Exchanges Are Here To Stay
As efforts to implement the health law move forward, Politico Pro talks to Michael Leavitt about state exchanges, and KHN examines the administration’s strategy for prevention funding.
The Independent examines how “[t]he cheap supply of antiretroviral drugs to people with AIDS across the world could be choked by an ‘intellectual property’ deal … being negotiated [on Friday] at the 12th E.U.-India summit in New Delhi between the President of the European Commission, Jos
Negotiations Stalled on House-Senate Package That Would Avert Medicare Pay Cuts for Doctors
The Republican plan to pay for the package, which includes extending a payroll tax cut, calls for a premium increase for upper-income Medicare patients that has been rejected by Democrats. Democrats have offered to trim unemployment benefits by six weeks.
“With enough money spent in the right way, the world could soon reduce new HIV infections to zero, but global apathy and the financial crisis mean it might take another 50 years to stop the AIDS epidemic, a U.N. expert has said,” AlertNet reports. “At a time when HIV/AIDS efforts face an unprecedented decline in funding, Paul De Lay, deputy executive director of UNAIDS …, called on developing states to take more responsibility for tackling HIV in their own countries rather than relying on international assistance,” the news service notes.
State Roundup: Fraud Crackdowns, Searching For More Doctors, Immigrant Health Care
A selection of stories from Texas, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Georgia and Connecticut
