Latest KFF Health News Stories
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.
Today’s Selection Of Opinions And Editorials
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Smokers May Exacerbate Malnutrition In Developing Countries, Study Finds
The ANI24/Times of India examines the results of a recent study that found smokers in rural Indonesia tend to compromise their family food budgets in order to support their habit.
WHO Appeals For Donated, Low-Cost H1N1 Vaccines
The WHO’s flu chief Keiji Fukuda on Saturday called upon wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers to donate H1N1 (swine) flu vaccines to developing countries, the Associated Press reports.
Reuters Examines Increasing Hunger In Mexico
“More Mexicans are going hungry because of a severe recession that threatens to increase malnutrition and reduce gains in the fight against poverty since the mid-1990s,” Reuters reports in a story examining hunger in Mexico.
Washington Post Examines Spread Of Drug-Resistant TB In Russia
The Washington Post examines the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Russia where “[p]reliminary surveys have recorded an uptick in infections,” which could be the “start of a surge fueled by declining living standards and deteriorating medical care resulting from the country’s worst economic slowdown in a decade,” experts say.
Rising Costs And Patient Loads Push Some Primary Care MDs To Concierge Practices
Some primary care doctors have become ‘concierge’ practitioners, charging patients a flat fee for care.
Kenya Allocates $118.1M To Buy Additional Food
Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said Monday that the country’s government allocated $118.1 million to buy additional food imports because up to 10 million people are at risk of “severe hunger” due to drought, Bloomberg reports.
States Worry About Cost Of Medicaid Expansion
Lawmakers are cautious about expanding Medicaid coverage because they worry how it will be paid for.
States Pass Laws To Expand Parents’ Ability To Insure 20-Somethings
States seek to expand insurance coverage for teenagers and young adults.
Health Reform Fact Checks Fall Short On Dispelling Angry Myths
A fact check of a dozen often-repeated claims by politicos and interest groups finds that the truth appears “to be taking a vacation,” CQ Politics reports. But, “[T]he healthy dose of coverage has largely failed to dispel many of the half-truths and exaggerations surrounding the debate,” according to one leading media critic.
Insurance Industry May Benefit From Reform, Employees Attend Town Halls To Counter Criticism
The insurance industry has rallied its resources successfully in the health care reform debate and is “poised to reap a financial windfall,” The Los Angeles Times reports. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal finds that the industry is sending thousands of employees to congressional town hall meetings to counter criticism of insurers.
