Latest KFF Health News Stories
South Korea Considering Food Assistance For North Korea, Official Says
“Signaling South Korea may be attempting to cool tensions with its neighbor, Seoul has vowed to actively review sending humanitarian aid to North Korea through third channels,” CNN reports. South Korea’s Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik in a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday in New York “said he would consider the move amid growing concern over widespread malnutrition in North Korea,” according to the news service.
Abortion and ‘Personhood’ On GOP Campaign Agenda
State-level initiatives to restrict access to abortions help make social issues a major focus of the Republican presidential nomination contest.
Malpractice Charges Work Way Slowly Through Legal System, If At All
As hospitals and doctors try to implement new ways of preventing lawsuits, scrutiny of the system continues around the country.
Forbes Cover Story Profiles Bill Gates, Foundation’s Work In Global Health
The November 21 cover story of Forbes magazine profiles Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has focused its global health efforts on vaccine development and distribution, according to the article (11/21). Forbes also features an audio interview with article author Matt Herper, conducted by Managing Editor Tom Post, about Herper’s interview of Gates (11/4).
Groups Sound Off On Exchanges As Governors Wrestle With HHS Over Control
The issue of shaping health insurance exchanges is raising controversy even as states worry they’ll bear the brunt of the public’s anger over the law.
Proposals To Raise Medicare Age Could Raise Costs Too
NPR reports that raising the Medicare age could shift higher health care costs to others instead of saving money, while some lawmakers send a letter to the super committee opposing changing the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health care.
First Edition: November 7, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports on venture capitalists’ new interest in companies that can curb health costs and concerns among states on implementing the federal health law.
Romney Unveils Plan To Revamp Medicare, Medicaid
The 2012 GOP presidential contender’s plan to cut the budget would raise Medicare eligibility age and allow seniors to choose between the current Medicare program and private insurance. He would also cap Medicaid payments to the states.
Incorporating Mental Health Into Agenda To Ensure Access To Services For All
In this Lancet editorial, Giuseppe Raviola, Anne Becker and Paul Farmer, professors with the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, write, “Unprecedented opportunities to promote excellence and equity in health care delivery for the world’s most underserved populations are upon us,” but “delivery of mental health services in low-resource settings lags unacceptably and unjustly far behind that of other services.”
Education For Women, Girls A More Effective Strategy Than Family Planning To Solve Global Problems
In a post in the National Review’s “The Corner,” Christopher White, international director of operations for the World Youth Alliance, responds to a New York Times opinion piece published Wednesday in which columnist Nicholas Kristof hailed family planning as a solution to “many of the global problems that confront us.” White writes, “Somewhere along [Kristof’s] many trips around the globe … he’s failed to realize the ineffectiveness of contraception and see the real needs of poor populations — particularly mothers and girls.”
Super Committee Progress Appears To Be At ‘Impasse’
As the clock ticks toward the panel’s Thanksgiving deadline, the question of raising taxes continues to be a sticking point. Republicans and Democrats appear to be trying to “horsetrade” revenue increases for entitlement program cuts. In the background, 33 Republican senators sent a letter to the committee insisting on “no net tax increase.”
Boehner Sends Signals On Deficit Deal
The speaker of the house said Thursday that there is room for revenue increases in a deficit-reduction deal as long as such proposals are accompanied by major changes in government benefit programs.
Gates Delivers Report To G20 Leaders Calling For Increased Development Efforts
“In a report about financing for development delivered [Thursday] at the G20 Summit, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urged leaders to commit to increasing the pool of resources dedicated to development, or risk causing irreparable damage to the livelihoods of millions of the poorest people,” a Gates Foundation press release states (11/3). “Gates’ report to G20 leaders, whose countries account for 85 percent of the global economy, suggests they can raise over $250 billion (180 billion euros), a modest part of which could accelerate the development of poor countries,” Agence France-Presse reports (11/3).
Global Task Force Report Presents ‘Compelling’ Action On Cancer Care, Control
“More than 50 percent of all new cancers and two-thirds of the annual cancer mortality worldwide happen in low-income and middle-income countries,” a Lancet editorial states and describes how the recently released report Closing the Cancer Divide, by the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries, “presents a compelling case for comprehensive action on expanded access to cancer care and control with realistic recommendations that will be beneficial beyond cancer.” The editorial says the report notes that cancer and issues surrounding it “need to be addressed on humanitarian and rights-based grounds,” as well as “in terms of economic productivity and development.”
Obesity Affecting Wealthy, Middle Classes More Than Poor In Developing Countries, Study Says
“‘First world’ health problems such as obesity and heart disease may be gaining ground in developing nations, but they are mostly afflicting the rich and middle class while poor people remain undernourished and underweight,” according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Reuters reports. “Researchers who looked at more than 500,000 women from 37 mid- and low-income nations in Asia, Africa and South America found that there was a clear divide between the better-off and the poor,” Reuters states, adding, “Across countries, the wealthier the women were, the higher their average [body mass index (BMI)], a pattern that held steady over time.” The news service notes, “The pattern is different from that seen in wealthy nations, such as the United States, where lower incomes and less education often correlate with higher weight” (Norton, 11/3).
Women’s Groups In Somali Town Push For Law Banning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
“Women’s groups in the Somali town of Galkayo are lobbying the authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland to enact a law banning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), saying the practice was becoming widespread,” IRIN reports. “Activists say FGM/C causes serious health problems to the women and is against their religion,” according to the news service, which speaks with several advocates pushing for the enactment of an anti-FGM/C law. The advocates note that, in addition to passing a law, “a religious fatwa [decree] proclaiming that FGM is Haram [illegal] under Islam” and “convincing and winning the support of traditional elders and religious leaders was crucial to” their efforts, IRIN writes (11/3).
Global Food Prices Drop But Still High; Market Remains Volatile, Food Indexes Show
“The [U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization] FAO index of global food prices hit an 11-month low in October, reflecting sharp falls in grain, sugar and oils prices, the U.N. food agency said on Thursday, Reuters reports (11/3). “The agency attributes the decline to an improved supply outlook for a number of commodities and uncertainty about global economic prospects,” the U.N. News Centre writes (11/3). “Nonetheless prices still remain generally higher than last year and very volatile, FAO said,” according to an FAO press release (11/3). On Tuesday, the World Bank Group released its Food Price Watch ahead of this week’s Group of 20 (G20) summit, stating that “[w]orld food prices remain high and are hitting the poorest countries hard,” according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C (11/1).
Guardian Profiles Anglo American CMO’s Efforts To Fight HIV/AIDS
The Guardian profiles Brian Brink, chief medical officer at Anglo American, South Africa’s largest private-sector employer, and the company’s efforts to treat and prevent HIV among its employees. According to the newspaper, “HIV affects 12,000 of its employees, or 16 percent of its 70,000-strong permanent staff.” The Guardian continues, “For Anglo, a healthy workforce is a more loyal and productive one,” which is why it offers HIV testing and treatment free-of-charge to employees, runs HIV prevention programs, and promotes gender equality. “Not only is it a moral imperative to get on top of the AIDS problem, it’s also good for business, and the wider South African economy. The prevalence of AIDS and HIV [the virus that leads to AIDS] probably lops one percent off the country’s GDP,” Brink said (11/3).
