Latest KFF Health News Stories
Viewpoints: Sebelius On Medical Errors; Lieberman On Medicare; The Massachusetts Track Record
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about health law funding and policy particulars, as well as Dems’ push to protect Medicaid.
Swine Flu May Have Been More Widespread In Scotland Than Previously Believed, Study Says
In his opening address at the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “told presidents, ministers and diplomats from across the globe that if all partners involved in the fight unite ‘as never before,'” the goal of “zero new infections, zero stigma and zero AIDS-related deaths” can be achieved, the Associated Press/Kansas City Star reports (Lederer, 6/8).
Ban Calls For Global Unity To End AIDS By 2020 At U.N. Meeting Opening
In his opening address at the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “told presidents, ministers and diplomats from across the globe that if all partners involved in the fight unite ‘as never before,'” the goal of “zero new infections, zero stigma and zero AIDS-related deaths” can be achieved, the Associated Press/Kansas City Star reports (Lederer, 6/8).
Report Examines How African Governments Can Work With Private Sector To Improve Health Care
A new report from the World Bank and International Finance Corporation outlines how the public and private sectors in Africa can work together to improve health care quality and access, VOA News reports (Onyiego, 6/6).
“In an era of strained finances, it makes sense to invest in solutions that save money in the long run. HIV vaccine development fits that bill. As we mark the 30th anniversary of AIDS, there could be no better way to commemorate the occasion than to renew our commitment to its end,” Seth Berkeley, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and Phill Wilson, president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, write in a CNN opinion piece (6/8).
U.S. Aid To Afghanistan Unlikely To Produce Lasting Change, Congressional Report Says
“Much of the $19 billion in foreign aid that the United States has pumped into Afghanistan in the past decade may be fueling development on the ground in the short term, but is unlikely to produce change that will last once U.S. troops depart, according to a new congressional report,” the Christian Science Monitor reports (Mulrine, 6/8).
Researchers And Advocates Form New Vaccine Foundation
Researchers and “advocates for all vaccine research today launched yet another effort to increase funding and coordination,” ScienceInsider reports.
G20 To Launch Initiative To Reduce Food Price Volatility
The G20 plans to launch an initiative aimed at reducing food price volatility when the group’s agriculture ministers meet this month in France, the Financial Times reports.
About 6.4 million “children’s lives and billions of dollars could be saved if vaccines were more widely available in 72 of the world’s poorest countries,” according to a series of studies published Thursday in the June 2011 issue of Health Affairs, Reuters reports.
Peter Hotez, chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at George Washington University and president of Sabin Vaccine Institute, “will join the staffs of Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine this summer, [and] will serve as founding dean of a new, as yet unnamed, tropical disease research school at Baylor,” the Houston Chronicle reports (Christian, 6/8).
Battle Over Health Law Moves To Atlanta Courtroom
The oral arguments heard Wednesday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals may represent the most significant legal challenge to the sweeping health overhaul, which was signed into law last year.
Health Care Entitlement Programs A Focus In Budget Talks
Meanwhile, a poll released today shows Americans are “torn” over the issue of raising the debt limit, but more than half said they trust President Barack Obama to protect Medicare.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Hospitals Seek Help With Costs Of Caring For Illegal Immigrants
The American Hospital Association has urged the Obama administration to address this reimbursement issue in recommendations to Congress.
Five Senators Seek Investigation Of Physician-Owned Distributorships
The senators are seeking health from the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General to determine if these entities, which fuction as middleman and can allow surgeons to profit from the medical devices they use on patients, are legal.
