Latest KFF Health News Stories
Analysis: Did Law’s Backers Do Enough To Protect It?
Since the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the health law’s individual mandate, some experts are wondering if Dems did enough to protect the measure from legal challenges.
Will Spending Cuts Undo Health Industry’s Job Market Impact?
The health sector has provided job growth even in the economy’s darkest days, but it now may be showing sluggishness.
Longer Looks: Doctors Advocating Less Care; Addiction As A ‘Disease’
Every week, Kaiser Health News reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web.
Obama Urges Balanced Approach By ‘Super Committee’
Though the president maintains the need for Medicare and Medicaid to be part of the deficit panel’s considerations, he underscored the importance of avoiding “drastic cuts” to these fast-growing entitlement programs.
First Edition: August 18, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about a new HHS proposed rule that would help consumers do comparison shopping for health plans.
Forms Detailing Health Plan Specifics To Be Released Today
Part of the health law, these rules will lay out, among other things, a new standard form that will provide consumers who are shopping for health coverage with policy details, such as deductibles and specific costs for certain medical circumstances.
States Move Forward With Creating Health Exchanges
In Minnesota, though, party-based challenges are emerging to Gov. Dayton’s exchange plan. Also, Politico reports that, even though the health law allows for a federal exchange as a fallback plan if states don’t develop their own, no funding exists for these federal activities. On the other hand, the law provides almost unlimited resources to support states’ efforts.
ACLU Files Challenge To Kansas Law Restricting Abortion Coverage
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, calls the measure discriminatory because it does not limit coverage of men’s health issues.
Roundup: Deadline Extended For Mich. Medigap Verifications
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
UNHCR Reports 10 Children Dying Daily And Women Facing Risk Of Rape In Ethiopian Refugee Camps
“Ten Somali children under the age of five are dying every day of hunger-related causes in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, according to the U.N. refugee agency,” the Guardian reports (Rice, 8/16). UNHCR “said high child mortality levels had been compounded by a suspected measles outbreak at the 25,000-capacity Kobe camp,” but children are now receiving vaccinations, according to BBC News (8/16).
Tobacco Companies Sue Federal Government Over Graphic Warnings
The cigarette makers say the required labels violate free speech rights and will cost millions of dollars to produce.
GOP Presidential Hopefuls Have Clear Health Care Positions
ABC News examines the health policy records of three GOP presidential candidates – former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
PrEP Raises Questions Regarding ‘Risk Disinhibition’ And Drug Resistance
Nature News reports on “the possibility of unintended public-health consequences” of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV and pharmaceutical company Gilead’s plan to ask the FDA to evaluate its combination antiretroviral (ARV) drug Truvada for use in healthy people.
World Must Invest Equally In Bird Flu Prevention And Response
The “reports during the past two weeks of two recent infections and another death” from H5N1 (avian) influenza “raised little concern except among public health officials,” Robert Gatter, co-director of the Center for Health Law Studies and professor of law at Saint Louis University, writes in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece, adding that “[t]he fact that bird flu in developing nations receives little public attention reveals that the world has become complacent about this threat.”
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Interests Line Up To Guide ‘Super Committee’ Decisions
The American Medical Association is among the groups taking a message to Congress – but it goes beyond trying to avoid the 2 percent cut that would be triggered if the deficit reduction panel doesn’t meet its savings target. The AMA hopes to link fixing the scheduled Medicare physician payment cut to what it terms “any serious proposal” to address the nation’s fiscal challenges.
How The Medco-Express Scripts Merger Could Impact Consumer Pocketbooks
NPR reports on the joining of these two health care giants.
Timing For Supreme Court’s Health Law Review Unclear
The Wall Street Journal reports that the high court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the health law will come before or after the 2012 election. Meanwhile, Politico reports that a “conservative gadfly” has won a round in his battle against the Obama administration’s health overhaul effort.
