Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Bill Stall Creates Uncertainty For Drug Makers
The uncertain future of the health care overhaul is leaving drug makers in limbo.
Anthem Blue Cross Of California Raises Rates As Much As 39 Percent
Largest for-profit insurer in the state told its 800,000 customers with individual coverage that prices will go up March 1.
Congressmen, Citing Reports Of Fraud, Seek Accounting For AIDS Funding
Complaints of fraud connected to AIDS funding provoke requests from two Republican members of Congress for further investigation.
First Edition: February 5, 2010
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including the latest on Democrats’ efforts to regroup and move forward with their legislative agenda.
Resources For Americans Who Lose Their Health Insurance
U.S. News & World Report offers an explainer on cutting premiums and other health care costs for people who have lost insurance.
Landrieu Speaks On The Senate Floor To Defend So-Called ‘Louisiana Purchase’
Landrieu termed her effort “bipartisan” and said it was not a trade-off to secure her vote for sweeping health reforms.
COBRA Extension Likely Part Of Senate Democratic Jobs Plan
Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to advance the first part of the package next week.
U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Resolution Condemning Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a congressional resolution condemning an anti-gay bill before Uganda’s parliament, “calling it an attack on human rights and an obstacle to battling HIV/AIDS,” Agence France-Presse reports. “The symbolic measure asserts that ‘all people possess an intrinsic human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation, and share fundamental human rights,’ and warns the Ugandan bill, if enacted, ‘would set a troubling precedent,'” the news service writes.
Early Stage Trial Finds Malaria Vaccine Promotes Immune Response In Young Children, Study Says
An experimental vaccine was found to promote immune responses to malaria in young children in Mali, Reuters reports. According to the news service, “The vaccine, which uses an immune system booster called an adjuvant from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, targets the malaria parasite as it is actively infecting red blood cells and causing fever and illness” (Steenhuysen, 2/3).
U.N. Taps Bill Clinton To Lead Haiti Rebuilding; 200,000 People Died In Quake, Haitian PM Says
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday asked former President Bill Clinton, currently the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, to oversee aid and rebuilding efforts in Haiti, CNN reports (2/3).
Global Cancer Rates Could Be Reduced By 40% With Prevention Strategies, Report Says
“Forty percent of the 12 million people diagnosed with cancer worldwide each year could avert the killer disease by protecting themselves against infections and changing their lifestyles, experts said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports. Ahead of World Cancer Day on Thursday, officials at the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) released a report that demonstrates how scaling up immunization programs against the infections that cause some cancers and educating the public on prevention strategies could help drive down cancer rates (Kelland, 2/2).
Health Spending Consumes More Of U.S. Economy, Will Tip Toward Government
A new report by federal actuaries shows government programs will pay for more than half of all U.S. health care spending by 2012, and that total spending on health grew as a share of the economy.
Obama Tries To Bridge Democratic Divide On Health Reform
President Obama advanced this idea even as some think he’s having a hard time holding Democrats together on a health bill.
News outlets report on health care developments in Virginia, Washington DC, California, Iowa, Maryland, Maine and Michigan.
Indiana Medical School Cuts Number Of Students Amid Budget Cuts
Indiana University School of Medicine is cutting the number of students it admits to help erase a $7 million budget cut.
Today’s Opinions And Editorials
Kaiser Health News presents a sampling of today’s opinions and editorials.
Medicaid Cuts, Past And Proposed, A Concern To Businesses And Patient Advocates
Medicaid pinches are worrying hospitals and drawing criticism to the politicians who propose them.
Clinic Closure Leaves Indigent Dialysis Patients Looking For Treatment
A clinic closure in Atlanta has patients and clinic officials struggling to find new providers that will treat patients who need dialysis, The Associated Press reports.
