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Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton Thursday questioning if the federal government should receive a portion of a "donation" a nonprofit health insurer made to Minnesota's Medicaid program and why Minnesota classified the payment as such.
Government data show spending at hospitals increased at the end of 2011.
The lawmakers charge that this actuarial information was due to them by Jan. 1 and is central to their ability to make decisions related to the entitlement program.
News outlets also continue to explore issues related to the development of state-based health exchanges as well as the costs and enrollment numbers associated with high-risk insurance.
Gov. Rick Perry is directing officials to find money to help finance Texas' Women's Health Program after the state's move to kick Planned Parenthood out of the program endangered federal funds for the program.
News outlets report on a variety of health policy issues from around the country.
"As we honor the enormous impact women have on their families and communities worldwide, we also call on lawmakers to do more for global maternal and newborn health," Former White House Press Secretaries Mike McCurry and Dana Perino write in a post in The Hill's "Congress Blog," marking International Women's Day, which was celebrated on Thursday. "When we reach out with simple interventions to promote health and save women's lives, we build international allies for life," they write.
The New York Times reports that the Obama administration has begun an effort to use these arguments as an opportunity to educate the public and build support for the overhaul. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that one of the lead plaintiffs in a challenge to the law has gone bankrupt with outstanding medical bills, leading some to question whether this transforms her from a "symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address."
Reports on the business of healthcare also look at an Illinois ACO that is showing some progress and at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's call for greater transparency in how insurers and providers bill consumers for out-of-network medical costs.
Oregon and California are moving forward with creating health insurance exchanges called for in the health reform law while lawmakers in New Hampshire pass legislation barring the state from creating an exchange.
States are grappling with reproduction-related issues after Virginia's pre-abortion ultrasound bill passed: In California, lawmakers are set to consider a bill to give more women access to early-term abortions while lawmakers in Ohio and Minnesota consider legislation on contraception.
The 12 senators wrote a letter to the House Speaker, asking him not to hold a vote on proposals to expand exemptions from the Obama administration's birth control coverage mandate.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
This week's studies come from Health Affairs, The Kaiser Family Foundation, the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Government Accountability Office.
How this question is answered could have big implications for the GOP's presidential and congressional candidates. Meanwhile, Politico Pro reports the plan being prepared by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wis., is likely to include a reserve fund to deal with Medicare's sustainable growth rate formula.
"Child marriage is a one-way ticket to a life of poverty, illiteracy and powerlessness for girls and the international community needs to take urgent action to stop it," according to an analysis (.pdf) published Friday by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Guardian reports. "Brown's review, seen exclusively by the Guardian, says that the issue of child brides has been 'conspicuous by its absence' in the efforts to cut global poverty, bring down child and maternal death rates and get children into school, which are stated Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015," the newspaper notes.
At a plenary session Thursday at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) "presented preliminary data from the 2010 revision of the Global Burden of Disease," which "is aimed at analyzing global health trends to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries and risk factors by age, sex and geography for specific points in time," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study is a collaboration of IMHE, the University of Queensland, the WHO, and the Harvard and Johns Hopkins Schools of Public Health, according to the blog, which notes that the analysis of 225 health conditions and more than 50 risk factors is expected to be published this year and made available to the public online (Lubinski, 3/8).
A feature article in the Ugandan Observer examines a recent agreement signed by the U.S. and Ugandan governments "to drum up more support for maternal and reproductive health in Uganda." U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) Executive Director Lois Quam spoke at the signing, saying, "Investment in health in Uganda is one of the largest we make anywhere else in the world. Government must do more. They must put in more resources. Too many mothers die because they are giving birth to too many children. Far too many women lose their lives," according to the Observer.
"U.S. officials pledged Thursday to work for permanent solutions to ease hunger in the Horn of Africa, warning that Somalia remained a major crisis even though its famine is officially over," Agence France-Presse reports. Testifying before a congressional commission on human rights, Nancy Lindborg, USAID assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, "said that the United States and other major donors would meet in Kenya in late March to support longer-term Horn of Africa plans," according to the news agency. She added, "We cannot afford to let people slide into crisis every couple of years and respond with massive humanitarian assistance," AFP reports. According to Lindborg, the U.S. "provided $935 million during the crisis, ensuring direct food assistance to 4.6 million people and emergency health care for nearly one million more," the news agency notes (3/8).
A new report (.pdf), "jointly published by the Korekata AIDS Law Center in Beijing and the U.S.-based non-governmental organization Asia Catalyst," calls for the Chinese government to conduct "a full and independent investigation into the number of people affected" by illegal blood selling in central China in the 1990s that helped to spread HIV, "an official apology to the people affected, as well as compensation," BMJ reports.
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