Latest KFF Health News Stories
Obama Defends Reform To Seniors Worried About Medicare Cuts
On Tuesday, President Obama pitched Democrat’s health reform plans to senior citizens by assuring them that Medicare benefits would not be cut to pay for the cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured.
Finance Committee Negotiators Near Accord On Bill
A bipartisan group of Senators negotiating in the Finance Committee are getting closer to a deal on health overhaul legislation. One element under discussion is a plan to save Medicare $35 billion over the next decade.
No Blue Dog Deal In House As Compromise Proves Elusive
House leaders and the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats could not compromise late Tuesday after more than six hours of discussion, complicating efforts to have legislation on the House floor before the August recess.
Three Organizations Form Alliance To Address Global Malnutrition
“Three internationally known organizations based in St. Louis – the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital” – have entered into a partnership, known as the Global Harvest Alliance (GHA), which aims to “create inexpensive, nutritionally complete food to help the world’s hungry and undernourished,” the AP/Google.com reports.
Centrists Steer Talks Away From Public Plan
“Senate Democrats debating how to overhaul America’s healthcare system are moving toward a showdown over whether to create a government-run insurance program or set up a system of cooperatives instead,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Efforts Underway In Namibia To Treat Pediatric HIV
Inter Press Service examines how efforts underway in Namibia have helped to decrease the number of infants born with HIV while also increasing the number of HIV-positive infants on life-saving antiretrovirals (ARVs).
Massachusetts lawmakers will vote today to provide $40 million for health care coverage for legal immigrants, the Boston Globe reports.
Health Benefits Tax Gains Support In Congress, Opponents In Business
“You can think of Congress’s efforts to pay for health reform as being a little bit like a battle to slay a many-headed Hydra,” writes the New York Times’ economic columnist, David Leonhardt.
South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland Encouraged To Be ‘Vigilant’ In Staying Polio Free
At the 3rd Inter-Country Certification Committee Meeting — where policymakers and experts from South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, the WHO and UNICEF gathered to address issues surrounding polio — the WHO’s Nicholas Eseko lauded all three countries for becoming and staying polio free, according to BuaNews.
Latin America Accounts For Two-Thirds Of All Confirmed H1N1 Deaths
Health officials are growing increasingly concerned over the impact the H1N1 (swine) flu is having on populations living in Latin America, a region “which accounts for around two-thirds of the 816 confirmed deaths so far from the disease,” the AFP/channelnewsasia.com reports.
Today’s Selection Of Opinions and Editorials
Today’s Selection Of Opinions and Editorials
Long-Term Care Proposal Draws Opposition
The insurance industry opposes a divisive long-term care proposal called the CLASS Act, currently included in two major health care reform measures.
IMPROVE Bill Seeks To Fight Medicare Fraud
Lawmakers push bill to fight Medicare fraud as part of health reform legislation.
Primary Care Gets Boost From Stimulus Money, Experiment On ‘Medical Home’
“Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday that $200 million will be available for grants, loans, loan repayments and scholarships for the training of some 8,000 health professionals by the end of fiscal 2010,” Congressional Quarterly reports.
Do Prevention Programs Save Money? CBO Says ‘No’
The Congressional Budget Office has so far “failed to attribute any savings to increased efforts to provide preventive efforts like stop-smoking programs,” challenging the notion that preventative care saves money for the health care system, NPR reports.
Colorado Area’s Health System A Model Of Cost-Effective, Quality Care
A Colorado health system offers a national example of how to set up incentives for pay and provide cost-effective health services.
Doctors Oppose Independent Commission For Medicare Payments
Doctors are voicing opposition to one possible provision of a reform bill – favored by the White House and Blue Dogs – that would give an independent commission more power over Medicare payments.
Lobbyists Battle Over Biologic Drug Protections
“As Congress struggles with a massive health care overhaul, several lobbying powerhouses – including the pharmaceutical industry and the nation’s largest advocacy group for retirees – are locked in a contentious fight over the future of biotechnology drugs,” USA Today reports.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Obama Seeks To Assure Seniors: Nobody Is Trying To Change What Works
President Obama told seniors they wouldn’t lose out in health reform at a tele-town hall organized by the AARP.
