Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Premiums To Average 11 Percent Rise in 2010
Medicare Part D premiums will rise an average of 11 percent next year, and are up 50 percent across the nation since 2006.
Pharmacists Could Play Important Role In Reform
Pharmacists may help fill in health care gaps and advise patients on important health and wellness lessons.
Top Maryland Hospitals Worry About Effects Of Health Reform
Leaders at Maryland’s top hospitals worry about how efforts to cut hospital costs may affect them.
COBRA Subsidy For Many Ends Today, Laid-Off Workers Face Bigger Bills
The federal government began subsidizing insurance premiums for millions of recently unemployed workers as part of the economic stimulus package in February. But, the $25 billion in subsidies end Monday for many people, leaving the laid-off workers to pay the full cost of insurance if they wish to remain on their former employers’ plans.
First Edition: November 30, 2009
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including the advance reports regarding the upcoming Senate health reform debate.
Senate Debate On Health Reform Begins Monday, Public Option Will Dominate
Much of the news coverage previewing the Senate floor debate on health legislation, which begins this week, focused on the public option.
Senators Steeling Themselves For Health Reform Debate
The Senate is scheduled to begin debate Monday on the massive health bill that will now be on the floor.
Dems Face Huge Challenge In Reconciling Abortion Language In House, Senate Health Bills
Several news outlets are following the dilemmas that Democrats are facing in the health reform bills due to abortion.
White House Advisers: Senate Reform Bill Controls Health Costs
In a pre-Thanksgiving conference call with reporters, senior Obama administration officials praised cost controls in the Senate health reform bill.
Despite Gains, HIV/AIDS Remains Public-Health Priority, UNAIDS, WHO Say
News outlets continued to examine the 2009 AIDS epidemic update released Tuesday by the WHO and UNAIDS: “The U.N. report said ‘AIDS continues to be a major public-health priority’ and called for more funds to support efforts to curb the epidemic and to distribute lifesaving drugs,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The U.N. report also suggested that health authorities need to focus resources on those most at risk” (Fairclough, 11/25).
Under-Five Child Mortality Up 20% In Zimbabwe, New Data Shows
UNICEF and the government of Zimbabwe announced Tuesday that, according to new social development data, the mortality rate for children under age five has risen by 20 percent since 1990, Reuters reports. The data suggest that the mortality rate is increasing at a slower rate than in March 2005, when it rose by 50 percent, compared to 1990 (Dzirutwe, 11/24).
President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “agreed Tuesday to team up and tackle a checklist of economic, nuclear, security and environmental challenges” as well as collaborate on health and agriculture issues, CNN reports. Singh is in Washington, D.C. for a five-day visit (11/25).
WHO Investigates Cases Of H1N1 Drug Resistance In U.S., Britain
The WHO is looking into reports that patients with “severely suppressed immune systems” in Britain and the U.S. developed resistance Tamiflu, which is used to treat the symptoms of H1N1 (swine flu), a spokesman for the organization said Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved, “in principle,” a $47 million grant to reduce the spread of HIV among gay and other men who have sex with men in seven south Asian countries, IANS/Thaindian.com reports.
Senators Away For Holiday Continue Health Debate At Home
Senators away for the Thanksgiving holiday are continuing the health care reform debate with constituents and are facing far less vitriol than during the August recess.
Washington groups have lobbied Congress and the public in nearly every imaginable direction on health reform. Those groups include a few that you may not have guessed would have an interest.
Health Reform Financing Ideas Watered Down, Questions Remain On Premiums, Taxes
The New York Times reports that many significant cost saving measures in the Senate health care reform bill, like a proposed rule on Medicare reimbursement, “have been at least partly neutered.”
Massachusetts Lawsuit On Part-Timers And Health Care, Utahns Satisfied With Insurance
News outlets report on health care lawsuit in Massachusetts, a tobacco tax in Colorado and health plan ratings in Utah.
