Latest KFF Health News Stories
High Court And Severability: What Parts Of The Law Could Fall?
On Wednesday, the nine justices pondered what parts — if any — of the health law could go forward if the individual mandate is overturned. The discussion involved fundamental consitutional questions.
Commentators explore the case as it unfolded before the high court and the effect on the justices.
Democrats Respond To Ryan Budget Plan With Billboard, Cries Of Foul
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney offered his support for the plan advanced by Rep. Paul Rayn, R- Wis., causing Democrats to point out inconsistencies with his attacks on the health law. Meanwhile, Democrats have posted a billboard in Ryan’s hometown criticizing his proposals on Medicare.
Tough questions by the conservative justices at the Supreme Court are driving commentators to consider what happens if the health law, or at least the individual mandate, is struck down.
House Poised To Approve Ryan Budget Plan
Passage of the GOP budget advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will likely be along party lines. Meanwhile, a bipartisan alternative was rejected Wednesday.
Who Was Who During The Supreme Court Arguments?
News outlets take a look at key personalities on the bench, in front of the justices, in the gallery and in the creation of the health law itself — including examinations of the closing arguments by both the plantiffs’ attorney and the federal government’s lawyer.
Health Law Continues To Trigger Salvos In Mass. Senate Race
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren continue to spar over health policy issues. At the same time, Brown’s election to the Senate could continue to impact the fate of the health law.
All sides agree that, despite the uncertainly that surrounds what the court will decide, the decision will have political repercussions.
Medicaid News: Calif. Readies Changes For Dual-Eligibles, Adult Day Care Program
California is revamping its adult day health care program as well as its program for people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In Florida, a judge orders the Medicaid program there to cover autism therapy, and Georgia prepares to restructure its program.
Split Ariz. Republicans Stall Birth Control Measure
A split in the Republican party between moderates and conservatives has stalled a birth control bill aimed at allowing employers to opt out of covering contraception in their health plans.
Viewpoints: IPAB Should Be ‘Embraced’; World Bank Nominee ‘Exactly What The Doctor Ordered’
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Paying Doctors and Hospitals For Better Outcomes May Not Pay Off
Medicare’s largest effort to pay bonuses to hospitals that hit key performance measures — or dock them if they miss — did not lead to fewer deaths for heart attacks and heart bypass surgery, a new study finds. The analysis could lead to a reexamination of the idea of paying providers based on quality metrics, rather than on volume, which is key to the health law.
State Roundup: N.H., Kansas Move Towards Health Care ‘Compacts’
A selection of health policy news from Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Kansas.
Voiding The Mandate, Or The Entire Law, Would Upend Plans By Insurers, Employers
Popular provisions that have already gone into effect, such as letting children stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they turn 26, would fall if the law is thrown out. If only the mandate is declared unconstitutional, however, the law would still affect millions.
Medicaid Questions Complete The Court’s Health Law Review
At some points during the Supreme Court’s consideration of the health law’s Medicaid expansion, conservative justices not only questioned this provision of the law, but the program itself.
Longer Looks At Supreme Court Battle: Justices’ Interactions Key To Decision
This week’s selections come from The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The New Yorker and Salon.
USAID NTD Program Funding Cut By Nearly 25% In Proposed FY13 Budget
“The United States Government has played a major role in ensuring that patients with certain [neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)] receive urgently needed treatments through the [USAID] NTD Program, while simultaneously being the largest funder of basic research for NTDs through the National Institutes of Health,” Rachel Cohen, regional executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) of North America, writes in this post in the Global Health Technologies Coalition’s “Breakthroughs” blog. “However, today U.S. Government funding for NTDs is under threat,” as the “recently announced U.S. fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request from the Obama Administration has slashed the USAID NTD Program budget, which was already miniscule at $89 million, by nearly 25 percent to $67 million. … This isn’t trimming the fat — it’s cutting into muscle,” she adds (Lufkin, 3/28).
Stop TB Partnership, TAG Release Report On Tuberculosis Research Funding
The Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports the findings from the second edition of the 2011 Report on Tuberculosis (TB) Research Funding and Trends from 2005-2010, released Thursday by Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Stop TB Partnership. “TB research and development investment increased 76 percent between 2005 and 2010, but investment has slowed markedly, with only two percent growth since 2009,” the blog notes, adding, “The $630.4 million 2010 investment is only one-third of the $2 billion needed to stay on track with the Global Plan to Stop TB 10-year implementation and research strategy to eliminate TB as a public health threat by 2050” (Mazzotta, 3/28).
Examining Potential Implications Of The Affordable Care Act On Global Health
In this post in the Global Health Governance Blog, contributing blogger David Fidler, a professor of law at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, examines the potential implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on global health law, writing, “In the midst of this constitutional and political moment, I find myself wondering what this seminal American case means, if anything, beyond the United States in the realm of global health.” He concludes, “The lack of clear and immediate connections between the ACA litigation and global health concerns should not blind us … to deeper, more tectonic implications of the ACA’s fate for global health. As in an increasing number of policy contexts, global health practitioners and advocates have much at stake in the outcome of the ACA controversies but no way to influence what happens” (3/28).
Three Nominees For World Bank Presidency Commence Race With Statements
Several news outlets published articles recapping comments made Wednesday by the three nominees for the World Bank presidency. “In a written commentary released by the U.S. Treasury as he embarked on a global tour to sell his candidacy, … Jim Yong Kim, the Korean-American physician nominated by Washington to lead the World Bank, said Wednesday his science training will help him make the Bank more responsive to the needs of developing countries,” and that “the Bank needs to be ‘more inclusive’ and listen more to poor countries’ own ideas about how to solve their problems,” Agence France-Presse reports (3/28). On the two-week tour, Kim will visit “cities including Addis Ababa, New Delhi and Brasilia to seek advice about priorities for the bank, which lent $57 billion last fiscal year,” Bloomberg News notes.
