Latest KFF Health News Stories
Funds Awarded To Improve Maternal And Child Health With Home Visits
In another round of grants funded by the 2010 health law, the Department of Health and Human Services provided resources to support efforts by nurses, social workers, or other health care professionals to make home visits to low-income families that agree to meet with them in their homes. Also, Kansas Health Institute News reports on the funds awarded to Kansas.
Drug Shortages Fuel Increases In Cost Of Care, Poor Outcomes
The AP reports that shortages for a number of important medicines are causing hospitals to purchase these drugs from secondary suppliers at costs that include huge markups.
State, Private Exchange Developments Attract Attention
In Oregon, the Senate confirmed Gov. John Kitzhaber’s recommendations for the Oregon Insurance Exchange Board. On the private side, Bloom Health, a Minneapolis startup, is continuing its efforts to create a national health insurance exchange.
‘Super Committee’ Hears Pleas To Protect Health Programs
Some say the recession’s toll could be even greater if Medicaid funding for mental health services hits the deficit panel’s chopping block. Meanwhile, provider groups continue to make their cases to the committee.
For Romney And Perry, Health Reform Among Debate Flash Points
GOP hopefuls across-the-board criticized President Obama’s policies while Mitt Romney and Rick Perry accused each other of flip-flopping on health care issues.
Bachmann, Perry Wrestle Over HPV Issue
During the last debate, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry clashed over their positions on the HPV vaccine. During Thursday night’s Orlando debate, the issue again emerged.
Poll Reveals Confusion About Health Law, Little Faith In Debt Panel
A KFF tracking poll finds big gaps in American’s understanding of the health law as well as little faith in the congressional “super committee.” Another survey, this one from National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, found that public opinion opposes cutting Medicare and Social Security to reduce the deficit, and that this view cuts across partisan lines.
Today’s selection of opinions and editorials.
Consumer Groups Reap HHS Rate Review Grants
HHS this week awarded $109 million to states to strengthen the review process for proposed increases in health insurance premiums. Politico reports that some of the funding also went to consumer advocacy groups that often take on insurers. Meanwhile, California Healthline details what funding its home state secured.
State Roundup: Texas House Dems Ask CMS To Reject Medicaid Waiver
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Urgency Of Antimalarial Drug Resistance Must Be Recognized
Arjen Dondorp, deputy director of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Research Unit at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and colleagues discuss the need to combat antimalarial drug resistance in this New England Journal of Medicine opinion piece, writing, “Researchers, funders, and policy leaders must recognize the urgency of the problem, take action to address simultaneously several important knowledge gaps, and focus immediately on eliminating the threat of artemisinin resistance.”
This year’s annual World Disasters Report, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Thursday, focuses on hunger and malnutrition, but highlights a growing gap between economic classes, the Australian reports, noting “15 percent of the world’s population is going hungry while a record 20 percent now suffer the effects of ‘excess nutrition'” (Hodge, 9/23).
African Leaders Malaria Alliance Launches Malaria Scorecard
“The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) has launched a scorecard to improve the fight against malaria on the African continent,” IRIN reports. “Updated quarterly, it provides information from each country on policies formulated, preventative measures initiated, money spent, lives saved and lost,” and “also tracks tracer indicators for maternal, newborn and child health,” the news service writes.
Gender Discrimination A Driving Factor Behind Malnutrition In Nepal, Experts Say
“Gender discrimination lies behind much of the malnutrition found in under-five children in Nepal, say locals and experts,” IRIN reports. “Women live hard lives from day one, born with no fanfare, contrasting starkly to the six-day celebration to mark the birth of a boy. Despite the physical demands of a woman’s daily life, boys and husbands eat first and are offered the most nutritious food, often leaving girls and women with leftovers,” the news service writes.
2M Pakistanis Affected By Diseases Related To Widespread Flooding In Southern Region
Two million Pakistanis have become ill from malaria, diarrhea, skin diseases or snake bites “since monsoon rains left the southern region under several feet of water, the country’s disaster authority said Thursday,” Agence France-Presse reports. “More than 350 people have been killed and over eight million people have been affected this year by floods that officials say are worse in parts of Sindh province than last year,” the news agency reports.
Vaccination Must Be Part Of Response To Cholera Outbreak In Haiti
Though “[c]holera vaccines are not a magic bullet and are not available in adequate numbers” to vaccinate everyone in Haiti, where at least 10 people die each day in an outbreak that began in October 2010, “there are compelling reasons to add vaccinations to the arsenal of public health weapons that has been deployed against cholera in Haiti,” a Washington Post editorial states. Efforts to improve access to clean water, educate the public about cholera transmission and treat those infected are ongoing, “[b]ut those efforts should be supplemented with an ambitious vaccination program starting as soon as practicable,” the editorial writes.
More Funding For Leishmaniasis Treatment Could Save More Lives In East African Outbreak
“East Africa’s worst outbreak in a decade of visceral leishmaniasis, the deadliest parasitic disease after malaria, could ease if donors paid more attention to the illness,” which infects approximately 500,000 people and kills up to 60,000 annually in 70 countries, the non-profit group “Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform, or LEAP, said in a statement from Nairobi” on Friday, Bloomberg reports.
