Latest KFF Health News Stories
House To Vote Today On Medical Device Tax Repeal
The measure, which would repeal a nearly $30 billion excise tax on medical device manufacturers, would also repeal a health law provision that prohibits the use of funds from flexible health spending accounts and other health reimbursement arrangements to buy over-the-counter drugs without a prescription. The White House has threatened to veto the legislation.
Focus On Health Care Jobs ‘Misguided’
News outlets report on a New England Journal of Medicine piece that argues that providing access to affordable health care is more important than protecting health industry jobs.
Medicaid: More Federal Scrutiny For Minn. Program; Colo. Reforms Become Law
Minnesota’s Medicaid program faces more federal scrutiny on its rates. In the meantime, new Medicaid payment reforms are signed into law in Colorado.
Group Rates More Than 2,600 Hospitals With Single Letter Grade
News outlets report on how their local hospitals were graded by a nonprofit organization that culled patient safety ratings from a variety of sources and assigned a single letter grade to more than 2,600 hospitals in the United States.
UnitedHealth’s Shareholders Will See Dividend Boost
The UnitedHealth board approved an increase in quarterly dividends of more than 30 percent. Also in the news, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group is facing allegations of Medicare Advantage overpayments.
Health Care Issues Make June A Difficult Month For Democrats
News outlets report how issues and the upcoming Supreme Court decision are creating difficulties for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Meanwhile, the focus on women voters is becoming a boon for advocacy groups on both side of key related issues.
Calif. Voters Reject Tobacco Tax, Officials Consider Fallout
California voters narrowly defeated a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes amid an advertising blitz by the tobacco industry that some predict could quash similar efforts in the future.
State Roundup: Big NYC Hospital Merger; Colo. To Fight Exapnding Waistlines?
A selection of health policy stories from Colorado, New York, Washington state, Massachusetts, Idaho and North Carolina.
Implementing The Health Law: HHS Has Missed Nearly Half Of Its Deadlines
The Hill reports that, according to an analysis by the American Action Forum, the Department of Health and Human Services has missed many implementation deadlines in the last two years. Meanwhile, Politico Pro examines issues related to the health law’s Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies.
Viewpoints: The Potential Impact Of Medical Device Tax; ‘Unsustainable’ Health And Pension Benefits
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Longer Looks: Toobin’s Tips On SCOTUS Decision
This week’s selections include articles from ABC News, The New Yorker, American Medical News, the Atlantic and The New York Times.
UNAIDS Governing Body Meets In Geneva
The “UNAIDS governing body, the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB), is holding its 30th Board meeting from 5-7 June in Geneva,” the agency reports on its website. “This year’s thematic segment will take place on the second day of the meeting and will focus on combination prevention or the urgent need to reinvigorate HIV prevention responses globally by scaling up and achieving synergies to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the AIDS epidemic” the agency writes (6/5).
“Delivering a speech at [Wednesday’s] opening session of the 16th Conference of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe congratulated leaders across the region for their personal commitment to the HIV response, specifically with regard to upholding human rights and protecting human capital,” UNAIDS reports in an article on its website. “Addressing eight Heads of State and other high-level participants in Lome, Togo, he called on African leaders to reduce their ‘triple dependency’ on external sources for HIV drugs, commodities, and technologies,” the agency writes, adding, “To ensure the health and security of their populations, African leaders should focus greater attention and resources on the local production of medicines, said the UNAIDS executive director” (6/6).
June Issue Of ‘Global Fund News Flash’ Email Newsletter Available
The June issue of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s email newsletter, the “Global Fund News Flash,” was released on Thursday. The issue highlights the Global Fund’s “Better Grants for Increased Impact” project, discusses malaria in Madagascar, notes the launch of the (RED) RUSH TO ZERO campaign, profiles Indonesia Fund Portfolio Manager Gail Steckley, and features a new cell phone application from Charity Miles, which “enables people to earn money for charity simply by walking, running or biking” (6/7).
CSIS Publishes Report On Advancing Health In Ethiopia
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday released a report called “Advancing Health in Ethiopia.” The report examines what the U.S. can “realistically expect to achieve in its ongoing engagement in health in Ethiopia” and what the core considerations to guide future U.S. efforts should be, CSIS writes on its website (6/6). In a post in the center’s “Smart Global Health” blog, report authors J. Stephen Morrison and Suzanne Brundage, director and assistant director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, respectively, reflect on the report findings. They write, “It focuses on the complexity of the U.S.-Ethiopian bilateral relationship just prior to the June 14-15 Call to Action on Child Survival, to be held in Washington, D.C.,” adding, “[I]t examines the Global Health Initiative (GHI) experience in Ethiopia at a moment when the Obama administration is critically engaging with Congress over what modifications in the GHI approach make sense for the future” (6/6).
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said Wednesday “that a more transparent and competitive market will lead to savings of more than $20 million over the next 12 months through a price reduction of 20 percent for bednets that protect people from malaria,” a UNICEF press release reports, noting, “The price of an insecticide-treated, long-lasting bednet has dropped to under $3” (6/6). “‘Never before have bednets been as accessible and affordable for children and families in developing countries,’ said the Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division in Copenhagen, Shanelle Hall, adding that the price reduction is the result of a long-term strategy to create a healthy global market for bednets,” the U.N. News Centre writes (6/6).
WHO Identifies Best Target Areas For Seasonal Malaria Treatment
“Pre-emptive treatment of children living in regions where [malaria] is prevalent only during the rainy season could avert 11 million cases and 50,000 deaths a year,” the journal Nature reports, adding, “The estimates are based on the world’s first guidance on seasonal malaria chemoprevention, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March.” “‘One-size-fits-all policies, like bed nets, are great,’ explains Rob Newman, director of the WHO’s Global Malaria Programme in Geneva,” Nature writes. “But for policies with a number of requirements, we need these sorts of analyses to help policymakers chart the path forward,” he added, according to the journal. “Researchers think that parts of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will emerge [as] the most promising candidates for seasonal chemoprevention according to three factors: malaria burden, predicted malaria seasonality and the efficacy of the drug combination sulphadoxine, pyrimethamine and amodiaquine (SP-AQ),” Nature adds (Maxmen, 6/6).
Independent Evaluation Of PMI Presented To U.S. Congress
The Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD) at Boston University on Thursday delivered its report (.pdf) on the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), released in February, to the U.S. Congress, IIP Digital reports, noting the “independent evaluation team finds that the [PMI] has been ‘very successful’ in reducing children’s deaths from the mosquito-borne parasitic disease, but also warns that the program must gear up if those gains are to be sustained.” The news service adds, “The CGHD report recommends a re-evaluation of malaria prevention methods, including insecticide use, which, the researchers find, covers a fraction of the at-risk population at a high cost” (6/6).
In this post in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog, Prue Clarke, an Africa correspondent, media development specialist and the co-founder and executive director of New Narratives — Africans Reporting Africa, writes, “By not supporting journalists, aid agencies are severely limiting their access to the truth about what is happening in developing countries and, therefore, their ability to make a difference.” She continues, “In our efforts to promote our reporters’ work and fund our operations, we repeatedly meet fantastic aid groups that are driven to improve the lives of poor people in Africa, particularly women,” adding, “They fund every manner of effort to, for example, end violence against women, improve maternal health, increase the number of girls in education and prevent exploitation by foreign resources companies.”
Experimental Drug Tested Against Multi-Drug Resistant TB
“Researchers who tested a novel type of antibiotic against multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB] are reporting that nearly half of patients who got the new drug cleared the bacteria from their lung fluid in two months,” according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports. Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka developed the experimental drug, delamanid, and “also designed and financed the clinical trial, which took place in 17 medical centers across nine countries,” the news service writes (Emery, 6/6).
