Latest KFF Health News Stories
Attorney General: DOJ Will Respond To Federal Judge On Judicial Review
In what has become a charged exchange, a federal judge in Texas demanded the Obama administration explain its views on the court’s authority to overturn acts of Congress. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday the Justice Department would respond “appropriately.”
Administration Budget Plan For Veterans’ Health Care Riles Advocates
The budget proposal cuts defense spending in part by increasing health care cost-sharing for retired service members. Also in the news, USA Today reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs is short on psychiatrists as demand for mental health care continues to increase.
“The United States is suspending at least $13 million of its roughly $140 million in annual aid to Mali following last month’s coup in the West African nation, the State Department said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports, noting the “suspension affects U.S. assistance for Mali’s ministry of health, public school construction and the government’s efforts to boost agricultural production.” According to the news agency, “U.S. law bars aid ‘to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.'” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said, “These are worthwhile programs that are now suspended because that aid goes directly to the government of Mali,” Reuters notes (4/5). France and the European Union also immediately suspended all but essential humanitarian aid to the country, according to the Associated Press/USA Today.
AP: Prescription Painkiller Sales Have ‘Exploded,’ Leading Experts To Fear ‘Addiction Epidemic’
Drug Enforcement Administration figures indicate a marked uptick in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan.
State Roundup: New Vt. Law Overhauls Mental Health System
A selection of state health policy stories from Virginia, Vermont, Iowa, California, Georgia and Colorado.
Race Pits Obamacare Against Romneycare
News outlets analyze how health policy positions taken by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are playing out on the campaign trail.
Some commentators find fault with the president as well as with a federal judge who took the administration to task.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
U.S. Spending On Prescription Drugs, Doctor Visits Levels Off
A study by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics found that senior citizens in particular are filling fewer prescriptions as out-of-pocket costs increase.
Medicaid News: Ore. Competitors Work Together; Calif. ‘Duals’ Project Launches
A selection of Medicaid news from California, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Colorado.
Presidential Campaign Focus Turns To Budget, Medicare Issues
President Barack Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney are using their differences on Medicare issues and entitlement spending — in the context of the nation’s fiscal challenges — as key campaign themes.
Contraception, Abortion, Fetal Care Issues Flare Up In State Legislatures
Women’s health issues continue to roil politics in Texas, Mississippi and Nebraska.
Study: MLR Rule Would Have Translated Into $2B In Rebates To Consumers
If the health law’s requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care had gone into effect in 2010, instead of a year later, private plans would have had to refund as much as $2 billion to consumers, either in rebates or reduced premiums, according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund, which supports the law.
Longer Looks: Berwick Calls For Leaders To Rise Above ‘Political Catechism’
This week’s selections come from Rolling Stone, the Economist, the Atlantic, The New Yorker and Outside.
“Nations have crafted a draft treaty to fight a booming trade in illicit tobacco products that’s costing governments as much as $50 billion a year in lost tax revenue, officials said Wednesday,” the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. “But there are notable holdouts to the negotiations — the United States, Indonesia and more than a dozen other nations — where the treaty would have no effect,” the news agency writes (4/4). According to the WHO, tobacco-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and other illnesses, kill almost six million people annually, Reuters notes. “Formally a protocol to the 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first public health pact, the new agreement was reached after nearly five years of negotiations, including a fifth and final round this past week,” the news agency writes (Nebehay, 4/4).
Development Gains In Afghanistan Must Be Made Sustainable
Alex Thier, assistant to the administrator and director in the USAID Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, writes about the agency’s new report, titled “USAID in Afghanistan: Partnership, Progress, Perseverance,” in this IMPACTblog post. “Afghanistan’s literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality statistics, as well as access to communications, electricity, and paved roads, were dismal” in 2002, but a decade later, “Afghanistan has shown incredible gains in health care, education, and economic growth,” Thier writes. The report “outlines these impacts in a transparent and frank accounting of the roughly $12 billion in civilian assistance that USAID has implemented in Afghanistan to date,” he notes. “But these gains are fragile,” he writes, adding, “We must cement the gains from this incredible investment, and make them sustainable” (4/4).
Comprehensive Approach Needed To Combat Typhoid In Africa, Worldwide
Though the focus on typhoid fever traditionally has focused on Asia, where the disease is endemic, “[s]ince early November 2011, there has been a surge of typhoid fever outbreaks in central and southern Africa, affecting children and adults alike,” Christopher Nelson, director of the Coalition against Typhoid (CaT) at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, write in this Atlantic opinion piece. “Apart from the illness, severe complications, and death that accompanies these typhoid outbreaks, disruptions of local water supplies interrupt the daily activities of entire communities and cities. Despite this large burden, typhoid has remained on the back burner of the global public health agenda, allowing the cycle of endemic disease and episodic outbreaks to continue, particularly in Africa,” they write and discuss the activities of CaT, which advocates for people with the disease and supports research, prevention, control, and surveillance programs.
GAVI Announces HPV, Rubella Vaccines Will Be Available To Developing Countries
“The GAVI Alliance has announced that it will include human papillomavirus (HPV) and combined measles-rubella vaccines in its portfolio for the first time” to help protect women from cervical cancer and children from disability or premature death, Africa Science News reports. GAVI already supports the funding of several childhood vaccines in developing countries, including the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, meningitis A vaccines, and pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, according to the news service (Mwaura, 4/5).
PBS NewsHour Interviews Developer Of ‘Solar Suitcase’
In this PBS NewsHour report, NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels interviews obstetrician Laura Stachel about the “solar suitcase,” a “a suitcase containing elements to produce and store solar energy,” devised by Stachel with the aim of reducing maternal mortality rates in the developing world after “witnessing the consequences of power outages in Nigeria’s health facilities.” “We estimate that 300,000 health facilities do not have reliable electricity around the world. So this is a huge problem,” Stachel said in the interview, according to the transcript. Stachel discusses her experiences in Nigeria’s health facilities, the development of the suitcase, and efforts to ramp up production to meet global demand. The news service contains a link to a related slideshow (4/4).
TEDxChange To Host Live, 90-Minute Webcast Featuring Melinda Gates On Thursday
TEDxChange on Thursday will host a live, 90-minute webcast, convened by Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and hosted by TED curator Chris Anderson. According to the TED website, the webcast, scheduled to begin at 11:30am EDT, will examine the questions, “Why should we, as a society, continue to invest in global health and development? How can we work across borders and political boundaries to make positive change? And what returns can we expect on our investments?” (4/5).
