Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Coverage Issues For Young And Old: Broadening Access To CHIP; Closing The Door On CLASS Act
As many states open CHIP programs to provide coverage for children of some state employees, the halting of the CLASS Act implementation means consumers must carefully consider their long-term care options.
Reform Necessary To Overcome Challenges To Polio Eradication Efforts In Pakistan
In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Sania Nishtar, founder of Heartfile and the recently launched Sania Nishtar Health Fund, writes that “[a]fter 23 years of commencing the World Health Organisation-led Global Polio Eradication initiative, billions of dollars in investment, mobilization of 20 million health workers and a population wide intervention in 125 countries, vaccinating more than two billion children, there are only four countries in the world which continue to harbor the disease,” and Pakistan is “a living threat to the global goal of eradicating a disease for the second time from the face of this planet.”
Insurance Commissioners Delay Vote On Brokers’ Fees
The National Association Of Insurance Commissioners meeting could not come to a consensus on the issue of whether to remove broker and agent fees from the expenses that insurance companies can count as administrative costs under the health law. In the meantime, GOP lawmakers have asked the IRS commissioner to clarify that individuals in state exchanges get any tax credits created under the new law.
News outlets report on issues related to doctors.
Rural Hospitals Struggling; Health Hiring Steady; Hurricane Irene Still Affecting Vt. Mentally Ill
A selection of stories about health policy developments from around the country.
Perry’s Health Benefits Noted; Romney And Perry Spar On Immigrants And Health Care
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is entitled to a lucrative pension from his government job that includes lifetime health care paid for by the state, The Texas Tribune reports. Meanwhile, Perry and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney exchanged barbs about their records.
Commitment Of USAID Promises Future R&D Breakthroughs In Global Health
Since USAID launched 50 years ago, the agency “has had a rich history of supporting global health, including research and development (R&D),” Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) Director Kaitlin Christenson writes in the organization’s “Breakthroughs” blog. She notes oral rehydration therapy (ORT), smallpox eradication, and the funding of research tools to help women as “[s]ome of the major breakthroughs in global health that USAID has supported,” concluding, “With this strong commitment from USAID, the future of global health R&D will undoubtedly hold many breakthroughs that have the potential to save millions of lives worldwide” (11/3).
Inter Press Service reports on how the South African government, in setting up its own universal health coverage scheme, was inspired by Brazil’s Sistema Unico de Saude or Single Health System (SUS), which was shaped during the 1980s when the system was restructured to make health care a universal right. However, IPS notes that the news may be met with skepticism by Brazilians with a negative opinion of the country’s public health care system. “The SUS made it possible to provide everyone with health care, while reducing the chaos in the health sector,” but “[c]orruption, aggravated by insufficient inspections, has contributed to the poor execution of the” system, according to IPS.
Private Sector Companies Should Contribute To GAVI Matching Fund
The GAVI Alliance has “announced a major new initiative aimed at engaging private sector leaders: the GAVI Matching Fund,” through which “the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide a 100 percent match of contributions to GAVI from corporations and foundations as well as their customers, members and employees,” Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV Networks and a GAVI Alliance envoy, writes in a post on the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog. “Together, DFID and the Gates Foundation have pledged $130 million to support this effort, which means there’s the potential to generate $260 million for global childhood immunization efforts,” he notes.
Suggestions For Making A Difference In Fighting Hunger, Food Shortages
Kristi York Wooten, founder of SustenanceGroup.org and an advocate for fighting hunger and poverty, “canvas[sed] a panel of colleagues and experts for thoughts on how corporations and governments (and the rest of us) can make a difference to ensure a sustainable future,” and presents her findings in this post on the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog.
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.”
