Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today is Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick’s last day. News outlets offer views on the agency’s work during his tenure at its helm.
GOP Develops Strategies To Focus On Health Law In Upcoming Election Season
The Hill reports that central to the Republican plan is to keep the spotlight on some of the measure’s controversial topics while the Supreme Court contemplates the individual mandate.
First Edition: December 1, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports on congressional efforts to extend a payroll tax break and other work that must be done, such as the Medicare doc fix, before the end of the year.
Study: Few Healthy Food Choices At Calif. Children’s Hospitals
Only 7 percent of entrees at the 14 leading California children’s medical centers were deemed healthy.
Foster Kids More Likely To Be Given Psychotropic Drugs
Study finds foster children were prescribed the drugs at rates 2.7 to 4.5 times higher than other kids in Medicaid.
Obama Marks World AIDS Day With Funding Increases
The Ryan White program will get a $15 million funding boost, and an additional $35 million will go to state ADAPs.
ACOs Are Bursting Out All Over
A new report from Leavitt Partners found 164 “ACO entities” in 41 states in the U.S.
Opinion Pieces, Editorials Recognize World AIDS Day
Thursday, December 1 is World AIDS Day. The following is a summary of several opinion pieces published in recognition of the day.
Multimedia Resources Published In Recognition Of World AIDS Day
The following is a summary of multimedia resources published in recognition of World AIDS Day, observed on Thursday, December 1.
Opinion Pieces Address Global Fund’s Future After Cancellation Of Round 11 Grants
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to cancel Round 11 grant approval during a two-day meeting in Accra, Ghana, that concluded on November 22, according to a Global Fund press release (11/23). The following opinion pieces address this action.
‘Simple Solutions’ Available To Improve Family Health
“Although advances in vaccines, nutrition and family health have dramatically reduced the number of child deaths in the past 50 years, nearly eight million children younger than five still die every year,” Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in this CNN opinion piece. She adds, “To me, this number is unacceptable, because most of these deaths could be avoided” by providing antibiotics, sterile medical supplies, or education on breastfeeding, as well by improving access to nutrient-rich foods and effective contraceptives.
Papua New Guinea Experiencing ‘Crisis In Maternal Health,’ Government Task Force Says
“Decades of neglect, a failing health system and remote mountainous topography have created a ‘crisis in maternal health,’ according to a government taskforce in Papua New Guinea (PNG),” IRIN reports. “While progress has been made since the taskforce released its recommendations in 2009, some 250 women are still dying for every 100,000 live births, according to a 2008 inter-agency estimate,” the news service writes, adding, “Maternal mortality rates in PNG doubled from 1996-2006, states the government’s most recent national health survey.”
Obama Renews U.S. Commitment To Ending AIDS In World AIDS Day Speech
President Barack Obama on Thursday renewed the U.S. commitment to ending HIV/AIDS in a speech marking World AIDS Day, and was joined by former presidents Bill Clinton, who participated by video, and George W. Bush, who spoke from Tanzania with that country’s President, Jakaya Kikwete, the Independent reports (Popham, 12/1). According to the Associated Press, Obama announced U.S. “goal[s] of getting antiretroviral drugs to two million more people around the world by the end of 2013,” bringing the total to six million people, and “to 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from passing the virus to their children.” The news agency continues, “Despite Obama’s more ambitious goals,” which build on existing PEPFAR programs, “the plan’s budget is not expected to increase. Instead, officials said the expanded targets would be funded through savings achieved by making the program more efficient and cutting the costs of treatment” (Pace, 12/1).
Financial Times, IPS Report On Male Circumcision As HIV Prevention Strategy
Male circumcision is “a practice that — despite the evidence — has yet to be adopted as much or as fast as experts had hoped,” the Financial Times reports. “International organizations have publicly endorsed the importance of circumcision, and a number of guidelines have been established, but the response so far has been haphazard and funding remains modest,” the newspaper writes, adding, “One reason has been that much government donor and philanthropic support for HIV prevention work was focused instead on more ‘high-tech’ alternatives such as vaccines and microbicides” (Jack, 11/30).
Al Jazeera Examines HIV, Drug Use Among Women In Northeast India
Al Jazeera examines HIV among women in India’s Manipur state, particularly in the district of Churachandpur, where local non-governmental organizations “say more than one-quarter of the women use some kind of drugs and suffer from HIV; many, due to a lack of financial opportunities, will end up turning to” sex work to obtain money to buy drugs, the news agency writes. There are no long-term treatment facilities for people who use drugs or those living with HIV in the area, and there are no official statistics on how many women are living with HIV and using drugs, Al Jazeera reports. “The United Nations says these women can no longer be ignored,” the news agency notes. Charles Gilks of UNAIDS India said the number of affected women must be determined and then organizations need to establish “interventions which those women can easily and reliably reach,” Al Jazeera reports (Suri, 11/30).
Percentage Of Pregnant Women Living With HIV In South Africa Increases, Survey Suggests
The percentage of pregnant women living with HIV in South Africa “has inched up to 30.2 percent from 29.4 percent last year,” according to the annual National Antenatal Sentinel HIV and Syphilis Prevalence survey released by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in Pretoria on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports (11/29). The survey “sampled over 32,000 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in October last year,” South Africa’s Times Live notes (11/30).
Life Expectancy Rising In Afghanistan With Infant, Maternal Mortality Declining, Survey Shows
“Afghans are living longer, fewer infants are dying and more women are surviving childbirth because health care has dramatically improved around the country in the past decade, according to a national survey released Wednesday,” the Associated Press/Guardian reports. The survey, conducted by the Afghan Health Ministry in 2010 and “sponsored and funded by international organizations such as UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the U.S. government and the British Department for International Development,” “indicates that increased access to health care in Afghanistan, more hospitals and clinics, and more trained health care workers and doctors have significantly contributed to an overall improvement in the health of most Afghans,” the AP writes (11/30).
GOP: Charge Wealthy More For Medicare To Offset Payroll Tax Break
The proposal would require people who earn more than $1 million to pay the full cost of Medicare. Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is floating a “trigger bargain” that would delay for one year the automatic spending cuts scheduled to begin in 2013 and also could include a payroll tax extension and a fix for physician’s Medicare payment rate.
