Latest KFF Health News Stories
AP/BusinessWeek Examines Efforts To Sell Low-Cost, Portable Toilets In Developing World
AP/BusinessWeek examines the Singapore-based company Rigel Technology’s efforts to sell “state-of-the-art portable, fertilizer-making, toilets for as low as $30” in developing countries.
Medicare Cuts In Senate Health Bill Get Support From Seniors’ Groups
Bloomberg reports that Senate Democratic leaders are facing worry from other Democrats who about future funding for the program.
Today’s Opinions And Editorials
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Senate Leaders Say Health Bill Amendment Votes To Start Today
Senators will likely cast their first found of votes today but partisan disagreements over timing could stall future votes.
Reid Still Seeks Common Ground On Public Option
“The public option has gone through several stages of evolution this year, but it could soon face extinction unless one of the new versions picks up political momentum,” The Hill reports.
States Weigh Health Cuts; Mass. Considers Student Health ‘Revision’
News outlets report on budget squeezes in Oklahoma and Florida and a proposed overhaul of student health insurance in Massachusetts.
Senators Prepare To Debate Abortion Treatment In Senate Bill
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., is expected to offer a strong anti-abortion amendment and says he won’t support health reform bill without the provision.
NIH Approves New Stem Cell Lines For Research
The announcement signals a dramatic expansion of the controversial biomedical research.
At House Hearing, Panel Seeks To Clarify Advice On Mammograms
Members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force testified at a hearing Wednesday of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health.
Doctors’ Groups Break Ranks To Oppose Senate Health Overhaul
The California Medical Association
GOP Playbook Highlights Senate Procedural Tactics
A memo circulated by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., spells out the arsenal of parliamentary maneuvers available to Republicans as they seek to stall the Senate’s health debate.
CBO Report Shows Hundreds Of Millions Spent On Direct Marketing Of Drugs To Consumers
A Congressional Budget Office report detailed how advertising dollars are spent for the most popular classes of of pharmaceutical drugs.
New Health IT Grants To Be ‘Models’ For The Nation
The federal government will offer $235 million in grants for communities to upgrade and improve their existing health information technology capacity.
First Edition: December 3, 2009
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including the latest on the potential for the Senate to finally begin voting on pending health bill amendments.
Senate Debate Moving Slowly, Reid Could Extend Session
As Democrats pledge to work up until Christmas to pass the Senate’s health bill, leadership aides say Majority Leader Reid would consider calling the chamber back into session for the week before New Year’s — if the reform measure is not completed.
Orszag: Current Health Bills Only A First Step To Controlling Health Costs
The White House budget director also hinted that the independent Medicare commission proposed in the Senate health bill might not be tough enough.
Leaders Respond To World AIDS Day; South Africa To Expand HIV Treatment Program
Marking World AIDS Day on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon “warned … that new infections are outpacing the gains from treating people with the HIV virus” and that discrimination against HIV-positive people remains “widespread,” the Associated Press reports.
U.S. H1N1 Cases Decreasing, CDC Says; HHS To Review Approach To Health-Threat Preparedness
The number of H1N1 (swine flu) cases in the U.S. appears to be decreasing, the CDC said Tuesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. “Flu was widespread in 32 states by the end of the week of Nov. 21, a decrease from 43 states in the prior week and 46 states earlier this fall, according to the CDC,” the news service writes.
USAID Administrator Hearing Begins
Ahead of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, Rajiv Shah, President Barack Obama’s nominee for USAID administrator, submitted “a long list of detailed answers to questions” and “weighed in on a number of substantive issues while deferring to the ongoing reviews at both State and the NSC when it came to matters related to the structure of USAID and its relationship with the State Department,” Foreign Policy’s blog “The Cable” reports.
The Hill Examines Push To Get More U.S. Funding For Malaria Medicines
The Hill examines Medicines for Malaria Venture’s (MMV) efforts to get more U.S. funding for its work. According to the newspaper, the group is “asking USAID and Congress to redirect more money beginning next year to drug research and development from a pot of funds used to cover the range of efforts to treat and prevent malaria, such as providing mosquito nets.”
