Latest KFF Health News Stories
White House Continues To Push Health Care Policies, Sidestepping Congress
Using executive branch powers, the Obama administration has laid out new steps to cut fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and announced that $1 billion of federal funding will go toward innovation programs designed to boost jobs and improve patient care.
State Roundup: Calif. High Deductibles Spark Lawsuit; New Ark. Medicaid Chief
A selection of stories from California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Arkansas.
States Seeking Waivers, Moving Ahead On Health Reform Implementation
Some states are planning health insurance exchanges and are applying for grants to improve care.
Romney Assailed For Mass. Effort To Stop Care For Sick Girl
The Miami Herald reports that a conservative website has raised questions about the former governor’s role in a case in which a state agency sought to stop life support for a young girl who later came out of her coma.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
This is Africa reports on how changing priorities for major generic drug producing countries, such as Brazil, India and China — countries that “redefined affordable drugs, making access to medicines possible for millions in low-income regions” — and greater adoption of intellectual property rules could reshape the African pharmaceutical landscape, potentially leading to price increases.
Streamlining Clinical Trials Review Process To Speed Up Delivery Of Drugs To Those In Need
In this Atlantic opinion piece, Amanda Glassman, director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development (CGD), reports on how “lengthy, inefficient review processes” or “non-existent regulatory capacity” in some developing countries for drug and vaccine candidates waiting in the pipeline is keeping new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic techniques from reaching millions in need. Glassman highlights a number of trials that were delayed due to regulatory and ethical approval processes, writing, “Not only do these delays prevent access to effective treatments by a growing number of patients,” but “they can lead to unnecessary costs that eat away at already small budgets to find new cures for neglected diseases.”
International Diabetes Federation Report Estimates 1 In 10 Adults Will Have Diabetes By 2030
“One in 10 adults will have diabetes by 2030, posing a huge challenge to health care systems around the world, according to a report” released by the International Diabetes Federation to coincide with World Diabetes Day on Monday, Reuters reports. According to the report, the number of people living with diabetes worldwide will increase to 552 million by 2030 from 366 million in 2011 unless action is taken, Reuters notes (Hirschler, 11/14).
U.N.-Backed Polio Vaccination Campaign Moves Forward In South Sudan
“Up to 3.2 million South Sudanese children have received vaccinations against polio in a United Nations-backed campaign to ensure the new country remains free of the deadly disease, more than two years after the last case was reported,” the U.N. News Centre reports. The three-phase campaign, which is being coordinated by South Sudan’s health ministry and backed by UNICEF and the WHO, will continue with additional immunizations next month, according to the news service. “Polio … re-emerged in South Sudan in April 2008, but after an intensive vaccination campaign, no new cases have been reported since June 2009,” the U.N. News Centre writes (11/14).
“Climate change is expected to worsen the plight of millions of children in East Asia and the Pacific who already lack food and clean water and are vulnerable to disease, … UNICEF said Monday … in its report (.pdf) ‘Children’s vulnerabilities to climate change and disaster impacts in East Asia and the Pacific,'” AlertNet reports. “‘Higher temperatures have been linked to increased rates of malnutrition, cholera, diarrheal disease and vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria,’ putting children at far greater risk of contracting these diseases and succumbing to their complications, the report said,” the news service writes.
The Associated Press/Washington Times reports on a pilot project plan by Partners In Health (PIH) and GHESKIO to vaccinate Haitians against cholera, which “has set off a debate among some public health experts who question the wisdom of [the] program that will inoculate only one percent of the population and could deplete the world’s stock of available cholera vaccine, potentially putting people at risk in other vulnerable places.” The program will cost an estimated $870,000, money that some experts say would be better spent cleaning up contaminated waterways, according to the AP.
First Edition: November 15, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that the Supreme Court will take up the health law.
Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge To Health Law
The high court announced this morning that it will consider a challenge to the health law.
Researchers In Philippines Develop Machine To Quickly Detect Drug-Resistant TB
In this post in the Global Post’s “Global Pulse” blog, journalist John Donnelly reports on how a machine developed by researchers at the TB Laboratory at the Lung Center of the Philippines “that can detect multi-drug resistant [tuberculosis (MDR-TB)] in record time may revolutionize TB treatment.” According to the blog, the GeneXpert, dubbed by researchers as the “espresso maker,” grew out of a collaboration among partners put together by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics in Geneva and “can detect [MDR-TB] in two hours instead of the old way of growing cultures that took two months.”
“Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433 million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor,” including “replac[ed] the government’s lead negotiator for the deal” and “blocked other firms from competing,” the newspaper adds.
GE Capital Healthcare Flexes Muscle, Reaps Benefits
Also in health business news, Sutter Health names a new chief operating officer.
