Latest KFF Health News Stories
Hospitals Find Openness About Mistakes Improves Safety, Reduces Lawsuits
“Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans each year,” writes Laura Landro in the Wall Street Journal’s “Informed Patient” column. But some hospitals are trying to be more open with aggrieved patients and their families in order to reduce the number of law suits.
Young Obama Supporters Missing From Health Reform Debate
Obama’s tech-savvy young activists who were instrumental in getting him elected are not working in the same way on health care reform, a gap Obama will have to fix to get his reform try back on track, The Associated Press reports.
First Edition: August 25, 2009
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
GOP Plan Centers On Seniors’ Bill of Rights
As the Republican National Committee unveiled this health reform ‘Bill of Rights’ today, Democrats hit back.
Calif. Budget Crisis Affects Local HIV/AIDS Programs
Local California HIV/AIDS programs are concerned about recent cuts in the state budget.
White House To Begin HIV/AIDS Community Discussion Forums
The White House has announced that it will begin holding “a series of community discussions on HIV and AIDS throughout the country,” the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.
Life Expectancies Of People Living With HIV In Virginia, Advancements In HIV Therapy Examined
The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Sunday examined how highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has impacted the life expectancies for people living with HIV/AIDS.
CDC Official Calls For National HIV/AIDS Strategy To ‘Strengthen’ U.S. Response
“The severe and continued burden of HIV in this nation is neither acceptable nor inevitable. But, significant progress will require that we strengthen our national response,” Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at CDC, writes in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece.
CDC Considers Routine Newborn Circumcision To Prevent Spread Of HIV
U.S. health officials “are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of HIV,” the New York Times reports.
After Vacation, Obama Could Shift Health Reform Tactics
A vacationing President Obama will probably need to switch tactics on passing health care reform when he returns as he faces pushback from all sides on the scope and cost of his push, according to news analyses.
Senate Democrats Plot New Strategy, Consider Reconciliation To Pass Health Bill
Senate Democrats are increasingly considering using budget reconciliation – which would need a simple majority of 51 votes instead of the typical 60 – to pass health care reform without Republican support.
Abortion Debate Rekindled By Health Reform Efforts
“Efforts to reform the healthcare system have added new spark to America’s long-running abortion debate,” the Christian Science Monitor reports, despite lawmaker’s efforts to make the overhaul bills “abortion neutral.”
Senators Focus On Key Policy Issues
Senate Finance Committee negotiators do not agree on the amount of subsidies for people to buy health insurance, while lawmakers debate other policy particulars.
Insurers Seek Savings By Offering Coverage For Care In Other Countries
More insurers are offering networks of doctors overseas and in other countries for their policyholders as a way to save money as lawmakers struggle with how to drive down costs, The Associated Press/USA Today reports.
$10 Billion Provision May Aid Retired Autoworkers; NFIB Opposes House Plan
A $10 billion proposal may help retired autoworkers, steelworkers and schoolteachers afford coverage. Meanwhile, the largest small business association has turned against health reform plans.
Comparative Effectiveness: Back Surgery Remains Popular Despite Poor Study Results
Recent studies have found that vertebroplasty
Health Care Profiles: Kennedy, Daschle and Kratovil
News reports this weekend explored some old-garde personalities in health reform, as well as a new one.
Northwest Region’s HMOs Show Co-Ops In Action
A model for the co-op approach being discussed in health reform circles already exists in Seattle, where Group Health Cooperative has insured patients since 1947.
TIME Examines Discrimination Against HIV-Positive Children In Vietnam
TIME examines the discriminatory efforts to keep Vietnamese children living with HIV out of the country’s public schools even though, by law, children cannot be barred from school because they or any of their family members have HIV/AIDS.
