Latest KFF Health News Stories
Super Committee Ends Talks, Cuts For Health Programs May Result
Late Monday afternoon, the co-chairmen of the congressional super committee announced that their talks had ended in stalemate.
Significant Drops Seen In AIDS-Related Deaths, New HIV Infections, UNAIDS Report Shows
UNAIDS on Monday released its World AIDS Day Report 2011 (.pdf), “which shows more people than ever living with HIV, but deaths and new infections steadily dropping,” the Guardian reports (Boseley, 11/21). The number of AIDS-related deaths in 2010 was 21 percent lower than its peak in 2005, and the number of new HIV infections in 2010 also was down 21 percent from its peak in 1997, according to the report, BBC News notes (11/21). The report credits more widespread treatment, behavior change and male circumcision for significant drops in the number of new cases, according to the Guardian (11/21). “Of the 14.2 million people eligible for treatment in low- and middle-income countries, around 6.6 million, or 47 percent, are now receiving it, UNAIDS said, and 11 poor- and mid-income countries now have universal access to HIV treatment, with coverage of 80 percent or more,” Reuters notes, adding, “This compares with 36 percent of the 15 million people needing treatment in 2009 who got AIDS drugs” (Kelland, 11/21).
After two months of deliberation and debate to try to find ways to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years, the deficit panel is expected to announce today that it was unable to come to terms on an agreement.
If There’s No Deficit Reduction Deal, What Happens Next?
Both parties are jockeying for position, trying to spin the super committee’s expected announcement of failure into political victory. Meanwhile, some news outlets are examining what happens next for the automatic cuts, which will be triggered in 2013 if the deficit panel indeed does not offer a plan.
Medicare Will Still Cover Avastin For Breast Cancer, Despite Revocation Of FDA Approval
The FDA announced that Avastin, while still approved for other cancers, is more harmful than helpful to breast cancer patients.
WFP Says More Than 1M Zimbabweans Will Need Food Aid Through March 2012
More than one million Zimbabweans will need food aid between now and March 2012 because of poor harvests and food prices out of reach for vulnerable families, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday, the Associated Press reports (11/21). The agency “said it was facing a $42 million funding shortfall for food aid it planned to provide to vulnerable households in Zimbabwe’s hardest-hit areas until the start of the harvest season in March,” Reuters writes (11/21). According to a recent survey, “12 percent of the rural population will not have the means to feed themselves adequately during the lean season,” a WFP press release notes, adding, “Most at risk are low-income families hit by failed harvests, and households with orphans and vulnerable children” (11/21).
U.N. Makes Statement, WaterAid Releases Report On Sanitation To Coincide With World Toilet Day
“The United Nations independent expert on access to water and sanitation as a human right [on Saturday] urged States to allocate more resources to improving sanitation and promote efficient use of existing hygiene facilities, stressing that people are entitled to decent toilets,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “‘Lack of sanitation implies the loss of millions of school and work days as well as enormous health costs,’ said Catarina de Albuquerque, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, in a statement to mark the World Toilet Day, which is observed on 19 November each year,” the news service writes (11/19).
Wall Street Journal CEO Council Highlights Global Health As Priority Area
The Wall Street Journal last week held its CEO Council, “assembl[ing] nearly 100 chief executives of large companies for a day and a half to discuss the policy choices facing business and government, and the effects those choices may have on the global economy.” The CEOs formed five task forces to discuss priority areas, including global health, according to the newspaper (11/21). The Wall Street Journal summarizes the top four recommended priorities from the task-force discussion on global health, which include fighting non-communicable diseases, encouraging the global use of health technologies, targeting vaccine-preventable diseases, and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS (Landro, 11/21).
Innovations, New Solutions Needed To End ‘Global Sanitation Crisis’
In this CNN opinion piece, Jenna Davis — a faculty member in Stanford University’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, where her research and teaching focuses on water, sanitation and health, and a former member of the U.N. Millennium Task Force for Water and Sanitation — reports on what she calls a “global sanitation crisis,” writing, “More than 40 percent of the world’s population does not have access to a toilet. These 2.6 billion people, most living in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa, face the daily challenge of finding a bush, train track or empty lot where they can urinate and defecate in relative privacy.”
Potential Cuts To Global Health Spending Threaten Vision Of ‘AIDS-Free Generation’
The vision of an “AIDS-free generation” presented in a speech earlier this month by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton “is under threat in Congress,” as “[t]he House and the Senate are discussing significant cuts to the 2012 Obama administration request for global health funding,” Jeanie Yoon, a physician with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece. Yoon describes an MSF program in Zambia working to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT), saying such programs “provide an opportunity for mothers be tested for HIV (as well as other dangerous conditions for pregnant women) and to take the steps needed for them and their babies to live healthy lives; as well as for communities to gain productive members instead of incurring yet more losses.”
Medicare Physician Pay Cut Again In Play
Because the deficit panel’s prospects are increasingly dim, efforts to intervene to prevent a 27 percent reduction in Medicare physician payments are becoming increasingly dire.
Health Policies, Entitlements Grab Headlines In GOP Campaign Coverage
Newt Gingrich’s health policies are getting a thorough review as his standings in the polls improve. In the background, Mitt Romney blames President Barack Obama for the super committee’s difficulties.
Increasing Food Supply Through Production, Trade Policies Necessary To Prevent Widespread Hunger
“If we are to succeed in alleviating poverty and providing the necessary framework for sustainable development on our planet, there is no more pressing need than ensuring the supply of affordable food for our people,” Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, writes in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog.” He continues, “There are two keys to tackling this problem, enhancing production — particularly in Africa — and ensuring that trade in food flows unhindered from the lands of the plenty to the lands of the few. Without immediate action in these two areas, there is a risk that hunger will become even more widespread, with many million more lives at stake” (11/21).
Intellectual Property Watch reports on a panel event at the World Intellectual Property Organization held by the intergovernmental South Centre and non-governmental Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) on November 14, 10 years after the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Public Health. The panel “review[ed] the extent to which the intellectual property and licensing flexibilities recognized in the declaration have helped developing and least developed countries gain access to essential medicines,” and addressed the question, “Is the 10 years of Doha an anniversary to celebrate?” the news service writes.
Viewpoints: Finding Savings In Medicare; The Avastin Saga; Changes In Health Care Business
A selections of editorials and opinions about health policy from around the country.
Calif. High Risk Pool May Overflow; Seniors And Long-Term Care Costs
In California, the PCIP exceeds expected costs and small businesses are struggling. Minnesota insurers are worried about long-term care policies and a Michigan pay-to-play probe is opened.
State Roundup: Provider Groups Merging – Or Not
A selection of health policy stories from California, Illinois, Georgia, Connecticut, Minnesota, Michigan and Massachusetts.
Supreme Court Names Lawyers To Participate In Health Law Case
The high court named two lawyers to argue specific elements of the health law case – both of which are related to the individual mandate. Meanwhile, Republicans step up questions on Justice Elena Kagan’s level of involvement regarding the health law in her prior position when she was the Obama administration’s solicitor general. In addition, Democrats continue to push on Justice Clarence Thomas’ possible conflicts of interest.
U.N. Appeals For $5.5M To Fight Cholera In DRC
The U.N. and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to fight an outbreak of cholera that has infected more than 17,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) need an additional $5.5 million to help their efforts, Elisabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Friday, the U.N. News Centre reports (11/18). “The U.N. says donations received will go toward improving water and sanitation and providing medical assistance for victims,” the VOA “Breaking News” blog writes (11/19). “This $5.5 million is really urgently needed because the rainy season is set to begin,” Byrs said, Agence France-Presse notes (11/19).
