Latest KFF Health News Stories
Today’s Opinions and Editorials
A selection of editorials and opinions.
Taking Positions: Some Docs, Businesses Cheer While Others Oppose Effort
As advocacy groups with a stake in health reform take positions in the health reform debate, their battle lines don’t necessarily observe the boundaries of a given sector, industry or professional affiliation.
Obama Administration Silent On San Francisco Health Insurance Ordinance
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider a restaurant group’s challenge to San Francisco’s health coverage ordinance, one voice is noticeably silent: the Obama administration’s,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Insurers Join Public Debate With New Ad Campaign
The insurance industry so far has “stayed at the bargaining table and held its fire in the ad wars,” but “now, the industry is speaking up, not with an attack but with a seven-figure, national cable TV ad buy starting Monday in favor of affordable bipartisan health reform that can cover everyone,” Politico reports.
Small Businesses, Doctors Voice Concerns About Health Reform
“Small business is suddenly playing a big role in negotiations over health care,” NPR reports.
One Doctor’s View: Electronic Medical Records Work Well
Doctors increasingly use email and electronic medical records to improve health care. In an essay in the Los Angeles Times, Rahul Parikh writes about his own experience at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Northern California where they implemented an electronic medical record system in 2006.
Advocates Push To End Medicare’s Two Year Wait For Disabled
There are 1.8 million disabled Americans who wait two-years to enroll in Medicare. Many say that waiting period can be devastating.
Americans Living With No Insurance, Or Less Insurance, During Recession
Decisions about forgoing care because of the cost for the long-term uninsured have been a way of life, “but for a sizable group, being without a job and insurance is a new, deeply distressing condition,” The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
California Budget Could Force Seniors To Nursing Homes, Drive Up Costs
NPR reports that California’s $26.3 billion budget deficit is marginalizing seniors who rely on California state-provided health care and service to help them manage their lives.
Efforts To ‘Fix’ Medicare Payments At Center Of Reform
Efforts to fix Medicare and change doctors’ payments play a central role in health care overhaul.
Health Overhaul Issues Fill The Sunday Talk Shows
Health experts and politicians filled Sunday talk shows as Obama administration officials push for reform.
Governors Question Medicaid Expansion While Some States Do More With CHIP
“Despite budgets ravaged by the recession, at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance,” The New York Times reports.
Today’s early-morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Obama Budget Chief Declines To Say Whether Reform Would Direct Tax Dollars To Abortions
Obama’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag declined to rule out the possibility of using federal money to pay for abortions under the auspices of health reform legislation, saying “I am not prepared to say explicitly right now.”
Obama Administration Officials Defend Health Overhaul
HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius and budget director Peter Orszag both said today that health reform can happen without increasing the federal deficit.
Obama To Congress: Now Is Not The Time To “Slow Down”
In a televised statement from the White House, President Obama urged Congress to pass a health overhaul and said: ‘health reform cannot add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it.’
Labor and Education Committee Passes Reform Bill
The Education and Labor Committee on Friday became the second of three House committees to approve broad-spanning health care overhaul legislation, after a marathon session that stretched well into Friday morning.
CDC Report Examines Sexual Health, AIDS Rates Among U.S. Teenagers, Young Adults
CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) examines the sexual health of young adults and teenagers in the U.S., Reuters reports.
Gilead Sciences, Tibotec To Develop Second Once-Daily HIV Treatment
Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences on Thursday said it has entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Tibotec Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialization of a new once-daily fixed-dose treatment for HIV, the San Francisco Business Times.
Proposed House Amendment Would Impact Needle Exchange Programs In Washington, D.C.
A proposed amendment to Washington, D.C.’s federal appropriation for 2010 “would prohibit the city from using federal funds to distribute needles for the ‘injection of illegal drugs
