Archives: Morning Breakouts

News outlets report on the big-picture health policy goals of both parties. Republicans see the repeal effort as stretching far beyond today's House vote while the stretch of time may help Democrats.

Varying polls offer slightly different takes on where the American public stands regarding the health overhaul, its impact on the economy and whether it should be undone. Democrats are stepping up to try to sway these opinions. Meanwhile, a vocal physician organization has stepped into the fray in opposition of the overhaul.

In a battle that has near- and long-term implications, party leaders flex their muscles. Meanwhile, centrists launch a new program to advance the development of state exchanges.

The politically charged vote will mark the first step for Republicans in their effort to use a variety of legislative tools to undo the new federal health law.

Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "has defied worldwide trends, expanding more rapidly year by year than almost anywhere else," the New York Times writes in an article that examines how the country has become a symbol of "one of the world's low points in the effort to fight the spread of HIV," in large part due to the government's failure to reach out to injecting drug users (IDUs) and sex workers

The Guardian reports, as part of an online feature about health care workforces worldwide done in association with the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), that "Africa is desperately short of doctors and nurses. So is much of Asia. In 57 countries, the situation is deemed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be at crisis point ... But in contrast to some other developing world problems, this is an issue that really does affect all of us. The world needs an estimated 4.2 million more health workers."

A review of existing studies on breastfeeding, published Thursday online in BMJ (British Medical Journal), suggests some findings that contradict the WHO's 2001 recommendation that mothers "exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of their infants' lives," Nature News reports (Gilbert, 1/14). Researchers who conducted the most recent review "said babies fed only breast milk could suffer iron deficiency and may be more prone to allergies" and they said mothers could stop breastfeeding as early as four months, Agence France-Presse writes.

With the health law repeal front and center this week, Democrats will attempt to refine their message on the measure's merits. The battle on the House floor could be a fresh opportunity to sell the sweeping legislation. To this end, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will issue a report today that quantifies the number of Americans who have preexisting conditions and would benefit from the law's protections.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows the strong emotions against President Obama's health overhaul may be subsiding. Meanwhile, even as the industry's trade groups remain somewhat neutral on the law's future, pre-repeal groups are stepping up lobbying efforts.

In this case, which was brought by a conservative law center, the plaintiff is seeking to overturn a lower court decision that found the health overhaul to be constitutional.