Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Activity On Health Exchanges Continues
In Connecticut, the board overseeing the development of the state’s exchange is already under fire from consumer advocates. Meanwhile, in Kansas, representatives from the health industry are actively involved in the planning processes.
Advocates Back NAIC In Urging ‘Level Playing Field’ For Health Plans
In other health law implementation news, The Hill reports that the Obama administration will likely fall behind in implementing the CLASS Act. Meanwhile, the sweeping overhaul gets a vote of confidence from former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
As Perry Leads The GOP Presidential Pack, His Health Policies Draw Interest
Talk is picking up regarding what exactly ‘Perrycare’ might look like and how much the nation’s health care system will factor into his campaign messages.
Longer Looks: Who Is Influencing Health Care?
Today’s articles come from Modern Healthcare, Time, Salon, Global Post, Huffington Post, Governing and American Medical News.
Hospitals In Libyan Capital In Urgent Need Of Supplies, Medications, MSF Says
“Conditions in Tripoli’s hospitals could become catastrophic without a rapid improvement in security in the Libyan capital, the emergency coordinator of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told Reuters on Wednesday.”
African Union Meeting Aims To Raise Funds For Humanitarian Relief In Horn Of Africa
The African Union (A.U.) “held a rare fundraiser in Ethiopia Thursday in a bid to plug a $1.1 billion shortfall in aid for millions facing starvation in the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades,” Agence France-Presse reports. The A.U. has pledged $500,000 of an estimated $2.4 billion “required to assist the 12.4 million drought victims,” according to AFP (Vaughan, 8/25).
Global Fund Official Says Global Economic Downturn Affecting Resource Mobilization
ABC Radio Australia’s “Connect Asia” features an interview with Christophe Benn, director of external relations for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Benn said “it has become much more difficult to mobilize resources” since the 2008-09 economic downturn and “a great deal of mobilization, both of public and private donors” is needed to maintain ongoing projects that receive donations from the Global Fund (Cochrane, 8/23).
First Edition: August 25, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about a new Congressional Budget Office report and the usually unlikely assumptions it makes — including the end of Medicare physician payment fixes.
Implementation Of Maternal And Child Health Innovations Important
In a Huffington Post opinion piece, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes about the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge in Development competition, which “called for groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant mothers and newborns around the time of birth in rural settings.”
Voters Connect With Deficit Panel Members On Spending Cuts
With the work of the ‘super committee’ picking up steam, news outlets report on how, while back in their districts for the August recess, some of the panelists are hearing concerns about Medicare and other entitlement programs.
On Health Exchanges, States May Get A Second Chance To Create Their Own
So far, 11 states have accepted federal money to set up their own state-run insurance exchange. Meanwhile, the Basic Health Program, another health law initiative, is drawing attention.
Some Fear Industry Interests Are Stalling Negotiations On U.N. NCD Summit, BMJ Reports
“In the run up to the U.N. summit on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), there are fears that industry interests might be trumping evidence-based public health interventions,” BMJ reports. “Many hope that this meeting will force [NCDs] into the spotlight just as the first health-related U.N. summit did for AIDS a decade ago,” but “[w]ith only weeks to go before the summit … [d]iscussions have stopped on the document that forms the spine of the summit,” BMJ writes.
TB Urine Test Developed By Indian Researchers Offers Quicker, Less Invasive Diagnosis
“The Delhi-based International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and the Lala Ram Sarup Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, collaborated with the National University of Singapore to develop” a urine test that “offers a less invasive diagnostic method for” tuberculosis (TB), SciDev reports. “Drug-resistant cases need an expensive, sophisticated test that takes two weeks of culturing blood samples to detect the bacterium,” but developing countries, which “account for 95 percent of new infections and 98 percent of deaths … prefer a simple test requiring minimum resources and trained personnel, and one that gives quick and easily interpreted results, the Delhi scientists observed,” according to the news agency (Padma, 8/23).
IRIN Reports On HIV-Positive Kenyans’ Struggle To Reach Food Aid
IRIN reports on the difficulties some people living with HIV in Kenya face in accessing food. “Partly because of a prolonged dry spell, some 3.6 million Kenyans need emergency food assistance,” and, while there is food aid available in Kenya, poor roads prevent the aid from reaching some villages, according to IRIN.
Global Fund To Resume Suspended Grants To China
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which “froze disbursements of its AIDS grant to China in November and all other grants in May over suspected misuse of the money and the government’s reluctance to involve community groups, … said Tuesday that it was lifting the freeze on financing to ensure that AIDS work in China continued while it worked with government officials, representatives from United Nations agencies and private groups to resolve the dispute,” the Associated Press reports.
Viewpoints: Perry’s Health Record, Medicare Spending Slows, Postal Service’s Health Plan Controversy
A potpourri of opinions and editorials from around the country.
