Latest KFF Health News Stories
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
State Roundup: Calif. Fights Feds On Mental Hospital Oversight
News outlets report on a variety of health issues around the country.
States’ Hesitancy Could Delay Insurance Exchanges Development
At issue is what some see as the law’s uncertain future — which many link to the outcome of the upcoming election and the Supreme Court’s decision. The Minneapolis Star Tribune offers its home state, Minnesota, as a case study.
Sebelius Takes To Airwaves On ‘The Daily Show’
During her appearance, host Jon Stewart pressed her on the Obama administration’s decision to let states define the health law’s “essential benefits.”
High Court Rejects Request For Debate Over Kagan’s Health Law Recusal
The justices, who are scheduled to hear more than five hours of arguments challenging the health law, turned down the request without comment. Kagan did not participate in the decision.
PCORI Releases Draft Of Research Priorities
The draft, which offered insight into the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s priorities and comparative effectiveness research agenda, did not single out any specific diseases or treatments. The institute did seek public comment.
First Edition: January 24, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about a new survey that indicates the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance coverage rose for the fourth straight year.
High Court Rejects Request For Debate Over Elena Kagan’s Recusal From Health Law Review
The justices turned down the request without comment and Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the decision. KHN tracked the related news coverage.
International HIV/AIDS Alliance Releases Report Examining Potential Effects Of Global Fund Shortfall
The non-governmental organization (NGO) International HIV/AIDS Alliance has released a new report in response to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s announcement in November that “no new grants would be approved until 2014,” VOA News reports. According to the news service, the report, titled “Don’t Stop Now,” “examines the potential effects of the funding shortfall in five countries.”
Address Drug Resistant Pathogens As Part Of ‘Next Stage Of Global Health’
This post in the Foreign Policy Association blog discusses reports from earlier this month of “an emerging strain of ‘totally drug-resistant’ tuberculosis (TDR-TB)” in India, which the Indian government last week denied, “arguing that the 12 cases were in fact extensively drug resistant (XDR).” The blog states, “Whether or not it’s fair to use the TDR moniker, drug resistance is a serious, emerging issue that may very well define the next stage of global health,” concluding, “We are reaching a turning point, one at which some drug resistant pathogens are on the cusp of shifting from a handful of cases, an endemic, to a bigger, epidemic or even pandemic problem. Now is the time to initiate discussions on what the global community will do to stem drug resistance” (Robinson, 1/21).
Cooperation Needed To Fight TB
In this post in Global Health Frontline News’ “Notes From the Field” blog, Kevin Cain, chief of the tuberculosis (TB) branch for a research and public health collaboration between the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the CDC in Kisumu, Kenya, reports on TB research underway as part of the collaboration. Cain highlights several current research initiatives in Kisumu and concludes, “The world cannot afford another phase of neglect. We know by partnering with governments as well as affected communities in innovative ways more progress can be made improving programs and the tools available for diagnosing, treating, and preventing TB, and lives will be saved” (1/20).
U.S. Should Assume Leadership Role In Saving Global Fund
A funding shortfall led the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to announce in November that “it won’t make any grants to fund programs for at least two years,” a Deseret News editorial notes and calls on the U.S. to take a leadership position in saving the fund. The editorial states, “Few worldwide initiatives have the success record of the Global Fund …, but those breakthroughs may not have much chance to save many lives,” and notes that the non-profit lobbying group “Results is calling for the Obama administration to assemble an emergency meeting of donor nations this spring to find ways to ensure that the fund and its programs are able to continue and to provide new medicines where they are needed most.”
Medical Groups Maintain Pressure For ‘Doc Fix’
The medical lobby continues to push for a longer-term solution as the current temporary patch to the Medicare physician payment formula is set to expire March 1. Also, what’s to become of the IPAB in the upcoming congressional session?
Some States Flummoxed By Health Law’s Promise Of Affordable Care
News outlets report on a variety of health law implementation issues, including an Associated Press report detailing how the overhaul is lagging in the states. Other reports examine questions about ACOs, essential benefits and other specific provisions.
Scientists Halt Bird Flu Research For 60 Days Amid Safety Concerns
The head of the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funded “two projects that created a highly pathogenic [H5N1] flu virus mutation, has welcomed a two-month moratorium on further research while defending the value and safety of the experiments,” the Financial Times reports. NIAID Director Anthony Fauci “told the FT it was ‘right to get off the unnecessary fast track’ of a debate ‘played out in sound bites,’ and instead hold a serious international debate to determine future publication and practice in the field,” according to the newspaper (Jack, 1/22). “In a letter published in the journals Nature and Science on Friday, 39 scientists defended the research as crucial to public health efforts, including surveillance programs to detect when the H5N1 influenza virus might mutate and spark a pandemic,” Reuters writes, adding, “But they are bowing to fear that has become widespread since media reports discussed the studies in December that the engineered viruses ‘may escape from the laboratories’ … or possibly be used to create a bioterror weapon” (Begley, 1/20).
Drought Threatens Africa’s Sahel Region; Aid Agencies Worry About Donor Fatigue
“For the third time in the past decade, drought has returned to the arid, western shoulder of Africa, bringing hunger to millions,” and “[a]id agencies are warning that if action is not taken now, the region known as the Sahel could slip into crisis,” the Associated Press reports. “Aid workers also worry that donors are suffering from ‘famine fatigue,’ as the looming West African crisis comes just six months after Somalia’s capital was declared a famine zone,” the news agency writes.
Blog Covers Government Officials’ Comments At Country Ownership Roundtable
This post in the Ministerial Leadership Initiative’s (MLI) “Leading Global Health” blog “is the fourth of a series of perspective pieces on country ownership from the ‘Advancing Country Ownership for Greater Results’ roundtable organized recently by MLI, a program of Aspen Global Health and Development.” “This fourth piece covers the comments made by several senior U.S. government officials,” including Ariel Pablos-M
Asking Questions About Global Health Spending
Commenting on the latest data on global health spending from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in this post on the Global Health Council’s (GHC) “Blog 4 Global Health,” Craig Moscetti, a policy manager in the council’s policy and government relations department, writes “some of the latest tracking data shed light on some interesting trends, prompting many key questions.” He poses several questions, including, “Are developing countries stepping up?” and “Is health sector spending the more efficient and effective way to produce health?,” and answers each (1/19).
Settling Controversy Surrounding Bird Flu Research Will Not Be Easy
The WHO is expected to hold a meeting in February to discuss controversy over recent research on the H5N1 bird flu virus, after the U.S. National Scientific Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) in December advised the journals Science and Nature to withhold publishing two teams’ research on the virus for fear the information could “fall into the wrong hands,” a commentary in the Economist’s “Babbage” blog states. “In a statement sent to Science, the WHO says that research” into bird flu genetics is “an important tool for global surveillance efforts,” the commentary says.
A Delay In Signing Up For Medicare Can Lead To Big Penalties
Reuters reports on how seniors who wait too long to sign up for Medicare Part B could face costly penalties. Meanwhile, CQ HealthBeat reports on the political implications of Medicare’s monthly premiums.
