Latest KFF Health News Stories
African Health Scientists Need More Support, Funding To Address Shifting Priorities, Expert Says
With disease burden shifting from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) over the coming years, “African health scientists need more funding and support to overcome the barriers and deal with a changing health situation on the continent,” Olive Shisana, chief executive officer of the South African Human Sciences Research Council, said during a keynote address at last week’s World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany, SciDev.Net reports. “Many of these diseases can be prevented by putting scientific research and health technologies to work, said Shisana, adding that this ‘epidemiological transition is an opportunity for us to build capacity and to collaborate to tackle these diseases together for the benefit of the globe,'” the news service writes.
Companies Focus On Wellness Programs To Help Bottom Lines
Corporations view employee obesity and smoking as two things driving up their health care costs. Therefore, many businesses are taking steps toward wellness programs and incentives.
Insurers Look For Opportunities For Expansion
Big players such as Aetna and Cigna are snapping up smaller companies in an effort to keep earnings figures up.
Health Care Comments Prominent On The Trail To Iowa Caucus
As GOP candidates vie for support from potential caucus participants, their health care policies and statements are hot topics.
Health Insurers Defend Rate Increases
In Maine and New Hampshire, insurance companies are challenging state regulation of rates.
California Medicaid Cuts Spark Anger; N.Y. Medicaid Fraud Detection
In California, doctors are blasting a decision to cut payments for caring for poor patients.
State Roundup: Public Employee Benefit Controversy; Calif. Hospital Woes
A selection of stories from various states on health care.
Medicare Costs Rise As Hospice Use Increases
The Orlando Sentinel reports that this increase tracks with other increases in costs from for-profit hospice organizations.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
Obama To Issue Order To Address Medicine Shortages
President Barack Obama is scheduled to issue an executive order Monday to help resolve a number of shortages related to vital medications.
First Edition: October 31, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about a key medical group’s take on accountable care organizations and how a “merger wave” is hitting the health care sector.
Weighing The Cost And Benefits Of Screenings and MRIs
The New York Times offers two stories examining medical advances that help find disease and injuries and whether that has improved health or increased health costs.
Parties Still Far Apart As Deficit Panel Eyes Benefits, Taxes
Media outlets report on Capitol Hill reactions to the super committee proposals and counter-proposals that surfaced this week. For instance, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, gave his “most pessimistic” take to date on whether the panel would be able to offer recommendations by Thanksgiving on how to reach the deficit-reduction target.
New KFF Poll Finds Dwindling Democratic Support For Health Law
The overhaul’s popularity reached an all-time low this month, a change that was driven by eroding confidence among Democrats, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Targets For Somalia Aid Likely To Be Missed In 2011, U.N. Draft Report Says
“Despite a massive increase in humanitarian operations and international funding since famine was formally declared 100 days ago, the relief effort in Somalia is expected to miss almost all its key targets for 2011, a draft United Nations report reveals,” the Guardian reports, adding, “[m]alnutrition rates have more than doubled, less than 60 percent of the 3.7 million people targeted have received monthly food assistance, and only 58 percent of a targeted 1.2 million people received critical non-food aid items.”
Food Aid Vouchers Are Faster, Cheaper Alternative Than Shipping Food Aid Abroad
In this New York Times opinion piece, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tina Rosenberg reports on the use of food vouchers by some aid organizations in Somalia, highlighting the efforts of World Concern, “a Seattle-based Christian humanitarian group, and its Somali partner, the African Rescue Committee, [which] provide 1,800 families every two weeks with rice, beans, cooking oil, salt and sugar for their tea.”
Advocates Call For Supplementary Budget To Address Shortage Of Health Workers, Midwives In Uganda
“The shortage of health workers in Uganda is a ‘crisis,’ says the Minister of Health, and activists say expectant mothers are bearing the brunt of the country’s staffing deficiency,” IRIN reports. “Just 56 percent of Uganda’s available health positions are filled,” the news service writes, adding, “A parliamentary committee’s recent attempt to redirect 75 billion Ugandan shillings — about US$27.5 million — out of a national budget of more than 10 trillion shillings ($3.6 billion) towards hiring enough health workers was rebuffed in September.”
State Highlights: Wash. Gov. Announces More Budget Cuts
News outlets examine health policy issues around the country.
“Tanzania is to become the first country in the world to move exclusively to using syringes that self-destruct after a British entrepreneur played the health minister undercover footage of children being injected with used needles,” the Guardian reports. “Marc Koska, the designer of an auto-disable syringe and founder of a charity called Safe-Point,” who went to the Tanzanian government with the video, “hopes to persuade four other countries in east Africa to follow suit — Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda — before he takes on the rest of the world,” the newspaper writes.
