Latest KFF Health News Stories
Snowe – The Lone GOP Health Law Vote – Opts To Not Seek Re-Election
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, cited the polarized climate of Congress and Washington as a key reason she will leave the Senate. Her departure renews Democrats’ hope of winning this GOP seat.
Texas Doctor Charged In $375 Million Medicare Scam
Federal authorities charged the Dallas-area physician and five owners of home health-care agencies with a scheme that included registering homeless people for home health care services they never received.
Romney Wins Michigan, Arizona; Rivals Press Health Policy Barbs
In exit polls, some GOP voters said they were concerned about Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s health care policies. Rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich offered parallels between the federal health law and the measure Romney signed while governor of Massachusetts.
Kodak Seeks To End Health Coverage For Medicare-Eligible Retirees
The Associated Press reports on this develoments, which comes as part of the company’s effort to reorganize under bankruptcy protection.
Sebelius Testifies Before House Ways And Means Committee
The Health and Human Services secretary said the administration was vetting candidates for the the Independent Payment Advisory Board and defended President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget.
Senate Vote On Contraception Policy Set For Thursday
With the political stakes high, lawmakers are expected to vote Thursday on a Republican measure to let employers opt out of covering any health treatment they find morally objectionable.
Dept. Of Justice Lawyers Strategize On How To Win Key SCOTUS Votes
Media outlets report on this and other health law implementation developments, including news about health exchanges and the measure’s pre-existing condition insurance plan.
States Should Consider Highest-Cost Patients When Developing Essential Benefits Package
That recommendation comes from a report issued Tuesday by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, which concluded that those under age 65 have very different health spending habits than Medicare beneficiaries. Meanwhile, experts offer advice to states regarding development of essential benefits packages.
State Roundup: N.J. Localities’ Coverage Costs; Pa. Cuts Raise Ire
A selection of health policy stories from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Minnesota, California, Wisconsin and Oregon.
Detailing Efforts To Implement The Health Law – An Insider’s View
The St. Louis Beacon offers a Q&A with Jay Angoff, who formerly was with the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight and continues to be a senior adviser to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Medicare Actuary Issues Cautions About Current Efforts To ‘Cure’ Spiralling Costs
Richard S. Foster said that plans such as the GOP-backed premium support system and the Obama administration’s cost-cutting proposals do enough to control the program’s growth.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the U.S.
Budget Cuts Threaten Global Health Progress, Advocacy Group Warns In Report
The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) — consisting of 40 global health research and advocacy organizations — on Tuesday held a congressional briefing to launch its third annual policy report, titled “Sustaining Progress: Creating U.S. policies to spur global health innovation,” GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog reports (Donnelly, 2/28). The group is “warning deep cuts in the U.S. federal budget could reverse progress made on many diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” VOA News writes (DeCapua, 2/28).
In the Republican campaign for the presidential nomination, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), “the most religiously conservative candidate, surprisingly, is the most fervent advocate for U.S. global health diplomacy,” Jack Chow, former U.S. ambassador on global HIV/AIDS and former assistant director-general of WHO on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece. “Santorum has staked out global health as one of his preferred instruments of asserting American power abroad” and “seems determined to lay the groundwork for a global health agenda that is not only far more extensive than his competitors’, but would surpass both [George W.] Bush and Barack Obama in advancing U.S. interests abroad through fighting disease,” Chow writes.
Typhoid Outbreak Spreading In Zimbabwe; Officials Working To Improve Sanitation, Drug Supply
“A typhoid outbreak that began in Harare last year is steadily spreading across Zimbabwe with more than 3,000 cases reported although only one death due to the disease has been reported so far, health officials have said,” ZimOnline reports (Marimudza, 2/29). “We have reported 203 new typhoid cases this week only … So we actually have an outbreak that is raging,” Ministry of Health Epidemiology and Disease Control Director Portia Manangazira told VOA News, according to the news service (Gonda/Chifera, 2/28). Speaking to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Welfare on Tuesday, Manangazira “said the ministry did not have adequate supply of drugs for patients,” NewsDay notes (Chidavaenzi, 2/29).
‘Global Leadership’ Through Foreign Assistance Is ‘Strategic Imperative’ For U.S.
“[T]oday, with the national debt approaching $14.7 trillion, Americans rightly demand fiscal responsibility. Yet efforts in Congress to cut billions from the president’s proposed budget for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are short-sighted,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. He adds that “all of our foreign aid programs and foreign policy initiatives — from sending diplomats to Afghanistan to helping reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa — cost less than one-tenth of our annual military expenditures” and “comprises a mere 1.5 percent” of President Obama’s FY 2013 budget request.
China’s AIDS Action Plan Calls For Education, Condom Distribution To Stem Spread Of HIV
China’s State Council, or cabinet, on Wednesday “published the country’s AIDS Action Plan for the 12th Five-Year Program period (2011-2015) on the website of the Chinese government, http://www.gov.cn,” Xinhua/China.org.cn reports (2/29). According to the plan, “China hopes to cap the number of people living with HIV/AIDS at 1.2 million by 2015, up from around 780,000 at present,” by promoting condom use, reducing stigma and discrimination, and educating urban and rural populations, as well as local officials, about the disease, Reuters notes (Blanchard, 2/29). In addition, the plan aims to implement interventions among people at higher risk of infection, such as drug users, and increase the rates of HIV testing and treatment, according to Xinhua (2/29).
Clinton Discusses GHI In Testimony On FY13 USAID, State Department Budget Request
“People look to [the U.S.] to protect our allies; stand by our principles; serve as an honest broker in making peace; to fight hunger, poverty, and disease; to stand up to bullies and tyrants everywhere,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, and she added that to do so “takes more than just resolve. It takes resources,” ABS-CBNnews.com reports (Jaleco, 2/29).
First Edition: February 29, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports on yesterday’s GOP presidential primary elections and how health policy played a role in some of the rhetoric.
Maine’s Top Court Backs State Authority To Limit Health Plan’s Profits
In a case closely watched by the insurance industry, Maine’s top court Tuesday upheld state regulators’ authority to hold down rate increases sought by Anthem Health Plans of Maine.
