Latest KFF Health News Stories
Democratic Congresswoman Highlights Threat Climate Change Poses To Public Health
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) “called climate change a bigger public health threat than AIDS, malaria and pandemic flu” before a vote on Wednesday on a bill aimed at thwarting Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations, The Hill’s “E2-Wire” blog reports.
House Budget Chair’s FY12 Budget Proposal Would Significantly Cut International Affairs Budget
House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget blueprint, which was released earlier this week, would significantly cut the international affairs budget for FY12 and increase those cuts over the next four years, Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” reports, noting that Ryan’s budget also would increase “the defense budget by 14 percent over the same timeframe” (Rogin, 4/6).
German Government, Gates Foundation Sign Agreement To Provide Funding For GAVI Alliance
The German government on Wednesday said it would provide an extra 14 million euros or about $19.9 million “for child immunization in the developing world as part of an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” the Associated Press reports (4/6).
U.N. officials on Thursday marked World Health Day with a warning that “the misuse and irrational use of antibiotics has undermined the global fight against tuberculosis and malaria, warning of a possible return to the days before the drugs were developed,” and called for urgent action to control the spread of drug resistance, Reuters reports. In addition to growing resistance to TB and malaria treatments, “treatment for gonorrhea was threatened by growing resistance to the last-line treatment, and the WHO said hospital-acquired superbugs, resistant to major antibiotics, were becoming increasing frequent,” the news service writes (Mogato, 4/7).
House Panel OKs Ryan 2012 Budget Blueprint On Party-Line Vote
The GOP budget proposal’s Medicare provisions continue to draw scrutiny and debate about what the program’s future should look like, how the plan would change senior citizens’ health care costs and what its political implications might be.
Though Lawmakers Cite Progress, Current-Year Spending Deal Still In Play
If lawmakers fail to reach agreement on the 2011 budget, the government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Federal agencies have contingency plans in place in the event this happens. Media outlets report that Medicare and Medicaid would operate normally in the short run.
Viewpoints: Major News Organizations Opine On Ryan Plan
A selection of opinions, editorials and analyses from around the country.
NEJM: Perspectives From Aaron, Reinhardt, Iglehart, Annas, Chambers And Others
The New England Journal of Medicine today features perspectives from prominent authors on Medicare and Medicaid. NEJM granted KHN permission to excerpt substantial portions of these columns.
Longer Looks: Could Ryan’s Plan Be A Pitfall For Democrats?
Today’s roundup of interesting longer stories includes reports from Mother Jones, Salon, National Review, Congressional Quarterly, The Root, American Medical News and Hospitals & Health Networks.
Roundup: In Poll, Many Mass. Voters Say State Health Law Not Working
Today’s news reports come from California, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas.
How The Pharmaceutical Industry Is Confronting A Changing Landscape
News outlets report on strategies and trends regarding research and development as well as drug pricing.
House Subcommittee Plans Hearings On ACOs
In related news, Politico Pro reports that five leading health systems announced a plan to partner in sharing electronic health records. These systems note that the ability to share patient data with EHRs is key to success in creating ACOs.
Study: Hospital Adverse-Event Figures Exceed Previous Estimates
The research, which was published in the journal Health Affairs, used new tools to find that as many as one in three people in the U.S. will experience some type of mistake during a hospital stay.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that the House Budget Committee yesterday approved the Ryan plan, which includes provisions to reshape Medicare and Medicaid, by a party-line vote.
MDGs Still In Reach, But 2015 Deadline Will Be Missed, Bill Gates Says
The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can still be attained if developed nations meet their aid pledges, but the 2015 deadline likely will be missed, Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in remarks to the European Parliament’s development committee in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday, EUobserver reports.
Developed countries “gave more aid to poorer countries than ever before in 2010, despite facing big budget gaps and rising debt levels,” according to data released on Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal reports.
U.N. Officials To Testify On Capitol Hill As Lawmakers Propose Cutting U.S. Funding For U.N.
High-level U.N. officials are scheduled to testify this week on Capitol Hill, “where they will argue against initiatives to pare back U.S. funding and shake up the way the United Nations does business,” CQ reports.
World Health Day 2011 Highlights Problem Of Antimicrobial Resistance
On the eve of World Health Day 2011, Inter Press Service examines the growing global challenge of antibimicrobial resistance.
