Latest KFF Health News Stories
Tensions Rise In Bipartisan Debt-Ceiling Negotiations
Both Democrats and Republicans appear to be increasingly entrenched on key issues, including changes to entitlement programs like Medicare.
HHS Scales Back Rules For Patient Health Care Appeals
The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it was scaling back its earlier-released rules regarding consumers’ right to appeal health plan care denials.
Viewpoints: McKinsey Report Contentiousness; Medicare Facts Vs. Beliefs; Insurers’ HSA ‘Strategy’
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Arguments Held In NJ Appeals Court Over Health Law Challenge
The federal appeals court action centered mainly on the questions of whether plaintiffs need to show that they are already suffering economic harm – or will in the future – as a result of the health law’s individual mandate.
Mass. Attorney General Says Plan To Curb Health Costs Not Working
A report by Attorney General Martha Coakley says providers retain market clout and can bargain for high payments.
Health Law Politics Cause Sparks To Fly Among GOP Presidential Hopefuls
In the background, Republicans on Capitol Hill are renewing their criticisms of the health law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board as a “rationing” panel. Also reverberating – how candidates are handling the GOP anti-abortion pledge, and findings from a new poll suggest Americans are leery of the Medicare plan advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
State Roundup: N.Y. And Union Reach Deal On Benefits
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
News Outlets Detail ACO Concerns, Historic Perspectives
And in other health law implementation news, House GOP lawmakers lashed out at the administration waiver process during a Capitol Hill press conference.
CMS Official Grilled On Medicare Secondary Payer Program
Politics were at work as Deborah Taylor, the chief financial officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, faced tough questioning during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee On Oversight and Investigations hearing regarding the financial controls applied to this aspect of Medicare – a generally complex and obscure part of the program.
Longer Looks: Prenatal Care For Dads; Rise In Bipolar Diagnosis For Children
This week’s reading includes articles from Time, Newsweek, the Economist and American Medical News.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that the Department of Health and Human Services will scale back the health law’s rules on patient health care appeals.
FDA Reveals Graphic New Cigarette Warning Labels
“Nearly a half-century after U.S. cigarette packs were emblazoned with their first, modest warning, ‘Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health,’ the Food and Drug Administration – at Congress’ behest – is
U.N. Launches Drive To Improve Basic Sanitation By 2015
The U.N. on Tuesday “launched a major push to accelerate progress towards the goal of halving, by 2015, the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation,” according to the U.N. News Centre (6/21).
Funding Vaccines In The Developing World Creates Positive Allies
Syndicated columnist and ONE senior adviser Michael Gerson, in a CNN opinion piece, reviews the documentary “Voodoo and Vaccines,” which he writes “shows how government and health officials have reached out to religious leaders, and how many traditional healers are now carrying a pro-vaccination message. They are combining a belief in traditional medicine with an acceptance of modern medicine. And this is benefiting the people of Benin.”
Food Price Increases Create Discontent Among The Poor
A new report published on Tuesday by Oxfam and the Institute of Development Studies on the impact of rising food prices “shows that the overall impact of the 2011 food price spike seems to be a ratcheting up of inequality, producing a pattern of ‘weak losers and strong winners,'” Duncan Green, Oxfam GB’s head of research, and Naomi Hossain, a research fellow in the Participation, Power and Social Change team at IDS, write in a post on the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog.”
Eradicating Malaria Is A ‘Realistic Possibility’
Eliminating malaria in endemic countries is a “realistic possibility if those countries keep expanding malaria prevention and treatment at the pace set in recent years,” Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, writes on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s blog.
Defining The Meaning Of Human Rights And Health
A blog post on the Global Health Council’s “Blog 4 Global Health” discusses the meaning of language linking health and human rights.
India Looking To Supply Generic Drugs To Japan
After serving as “a lifeline to poor countries, supplying HIV drugs that have saved millions of lives
Nature News Interviews Outgoing Gates Foundation Global Health President
As Tachi Yamada, president of global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, prepares to leave the foundation this month, Nature News interviewed him about his work at the Gates Foundation and his predictions for global health.
Ghanaian, Brazilian Leaders Awarded World Food Prize
“John Kufuor of Ghana and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil won the $250,000 World Food Prize for cutting hunger in half while serving as president of their nations, the prize organizers announced on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.
