Latest KFF Health News Stories
TV Ad Wars Beginning Over Health Overhaul Proposals
Through June 27, $31 million has been spent for roughly 47,000 TV ads on health care this year, according to the Associated Press.
Columnist Discusses Recent Findings On Teenage Condom Use, HIV Prevention
“In the past few months, we’ve experienced near hysteria over swine flu and almost constant media attention to scares about tainted food,” Oregonian columnist Marie Cocco writes, adding, “These are genuine health hazards
Editorial, Opinion Piece Discuss Issues Related To Routine HIV Testing
A recent directive to streamline the HIV testing consent process in Massachusetts as well as consent forms “no longer hav[ing] to accompany test specimens to the lab,” are bringing “the state closer to a CDC recommendation that clinicians provide HIV screening on an opt-out basis,” according to a Boston Globe editorial.
Global Fund Faces $3B Funding Shortfall
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is facing a budget shortfall of about $3 billion, Marcela Rojo, a Global Fund spokesperson, said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Pakistani Refugees Continue To Be At High Risk For Disease, U.N. Says
The 2 million Pakistani refugees forced from their homes due to a military offensive against Taliban militants in the northwestern Swat Valley continue to be at high risk for diseases “as they cope with damaged water and sewage systems in towns and villages,” according to the U.N., Bloomberg reports.
IRIN Examines Government Officials, Advocates Reaction To Global Fund Restructuring In Zimbabwe
IRIN examines how government officials and HIV/AIDS advocates in Zimbabwe are responding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s decision to channel funds through the UNDP rather than the government-operated National AIDS Council.
Mid-Missouri has experienced an 18 percent increase in people seeking treatment for HIV/AIDS, according to RAIN, the organization that handles case management for patients in the area.
World Poverty Gains Reduced, Countries Unlikely To Achieve Most MDGs, U.N. Report Says
The global economic downturn has “reversed a 20-year decline in world poverty” and could “add up to 90 million to the ranks of the hungry in 2009, an increase of six percent over current totals,” according to a U.N. report on the Millennium Development Goals, which U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon launched in Geneva on Monday, Reuters reports.
Complexity Surrounding Changing Iowa HIV Transmission Law Examined
The Iowa Independent looks at the complexity of changing Iowa’s HIV transmission law. The Independent writes that Iowa “isn’t a state with a high percentage of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
International Health Experts Hold Two-Day H1N1 Meeting
WHO leaders and international health ministers met Thursday for a two-day meeting in Cancun, Mexico, to share the lessons learned from the spread of H1N1 (swine flu) (Xinhua, 7/3) and strategies for “battling the pandemic,” the AP/Washington Post reports.
Communicable Disease Epidemics In Developing World Not Being Adequately Addressed, IFRC Says
The “crippling” and “growing burden” of communicable diseases such as dengue fever, polio, or meningitis is not being sufficiently addressed in developing countries, according to “The Epidemic Divide,” a report released Monday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), AFP/Google.com reports.
AP/Los Angeles Times Examines Haiti’s Fight Against HIV
The AP/Los Angeles Times examines Haiti’s success at reducing the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the country through the work of the “nonprofit groups, Boston-based Partners in Health (PIH) and Port-au-Prince’s GHESKIO, widely considered to be the world’s oldest AIDS clinic.”
Maine Fights For Senators’ Votes, Grassley Can’t Satisfy Either Side
Senators home for the Forth of July recess found activists on each side of the health care debate waiting for them when they got home, as the two Republicans senators from Maine prepare their votes which could provide crucial support for the debate, The New York Times reports.
Obama Urges Groups To Stop Attacks
“President Obama, strategizing… with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation,” The Washington Post reports.
Lawmakers Seek Compromise On Health Overhaul Proposals
Democrats and Republicans are saying that they will need to compromise on a government-run public plan if they are to meet the deadline of having a bill on the Senate floor by August.
Today’s Selection Of Opinions And Editorials
A selection of today’s editorials and opinions.
Minnesota Clinics Serving Many More Thanks To Stimulus Dollars
As Minnesota braces for some cuts to public health programs, the state’s network of community health centers is being buoyed by money from the federal stimulus that will expand coverage to the un- and underinsured in that state, The Minnesota Post reports.
‘Consumer-Directed’ Plans Rise In Popularity As Businesses Scramble To Cut Health Costs
High-deductible health insurance plans coupled with health savings accounts are becoming the plan of choice for Connecticut’s small businesses newly offering insurance to employees.
Advocates Are Back With Real Health Care Stories
Thousands of people are “now telling their stories on videos, ads and Web sites on both sides of the health care debate,” The Associated Press reports.
