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Small business owners "who employ mostly family members are discovering fine print in the new law that disqualifies, or substantialy limits, their tax credit," The Boston Globe reports. In other news, doctors' groups promise to lobby Congress to fix Medicare reimbursement.
House Democrats, under pressure from fiscal conservatives to cut spending, dropped from a jobs bill both a COBRA subsidy extension to help the newly laid-off pay for health coverage as well as more federal aid to boost state Medicaid budgets.
The Senate has passed a nearly $60 billion supplemental spending bill that includes funding for Haiti relief and recovery from the January 12 earthquake, Roll Call reports (Brady, 5/27). The total amount included in the bill for Haiti is $2.8 billion dollars, Agence France-Presse reports (5/28).
Today's round up of state news includes changes in insurance rates for Kansas state employees, problems with EMT certification in Massachusetts and a hospital merger in the Washington D.C. area.
Factors that resulted in higher food prices in several countries in 2008, such as food scarcity and the use of land for biofuels, are still present and could cause prices to rise again without food production improvements in developing countries, Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, said in an interview with Reuters.
"The Obama administration on Thursday released a sweeping statement of its national security goals," the Los Angeles Times reports. The 52-page document "calls for the United States to strengthen international institutions, to heed treaties and norms, and to build stronger ties to allies, including to the emerging powers of India, Brazil and China. It says the United States needs to manage the emergence of new powers, while pressuring other nations to shoulder more of the burden of international problems," according to the newspaper (Richter, 5/27).
Kaiser Health News presents a selection of opinions and editorials.
Small business owners are worried they will lose money because of the new health law.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday urged employers to extend health insurance to children of their employees up to age 26 before a provision in the new law requiring them to do so takes effect later this year.
Some House Democrats seek to expand FDA authority to recall drugs.
The New York Times reports that "some critics say the modern biolab often has fewer federal safety regulations than a typical blue-collar factory."
Politico reports that the Obama administration has missed a health reform law deadline to "set up a task force on breast cancer and another on health care in Alaska."
This week's research roundup includes studies and briefs from the Commonwealth Foundation, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Heart Association.
Republicans criticize CMS brochure on Medicare changes under the new health overhaul law.
"Senior citizens who hit the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare's drug benefit will begin getting $250 rebate checks in two weeks, the Obama administration announced Thursday," according to the Los Angeles Times.
News outlets report on state initiatives to limit abortions by requiring an ultrasound before the procedure.
Today's health policy headlines focus on efforts by federal officials to get more insurance plans to move early on coverage for young adults as well as congressional Democrats' struggle to pass legislation to extend the COBRA benefit subsidy and to prevent a scheduled cut in Medicare payments to physicians.
Democratic infighting on a tax "extenders" and jobs bill, which includes a subsidy for COBRA health insurance benefits for newly laid-off workers, is casting doubt on the likelihood of a vote this week.
Republicans are criticizing a taxpayer-funded brochure sent to 40.2 million Medicare beneficiaries explaining changes to the program under the new health law.
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