Latest KFF Health News Stories
MedPAC Approves Draft Proposal To Junk Medicare’s Physician Pay Formula
The MedPAC plan, which relies on cuts to provider reimbursements to offset its proposal, has drawn opposition from physician groups and other provider organizations, which argue the approach would impact patients’ access to care.
Huffington Post Profiles UNITAID Chair
The Huffington Post profiles Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. under-secretary-general of Innovative Financing for Development and chair of UNITAID, a financing mechanism he conceived in 2004 to help provide medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries. The article discusses Douste-Blazy’s work and background, UNITAID, and other innovative financing schemes (Lines, 10/6).
DfID’s Reduction In Bilateral AIDS Spending May Increase Need For Funding Later
In a letter to the Guardian in response to the news that the U.K. Department for International Development (DfID) plans to cut bilateral aid for HIV/AIDS by nearly one-third, Nathan Ford, medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, writes that the agency’s decision “comes at a critical moment,” after “[v]arious studies published in the past year have shown widespread access to treatment and prevention can dramatically cut HIV/AIDS transmission, and allow for consideration of an end to the epidemic.”
MSF Calls On Brazilian Government To Step Up Production Of Only Drug For Chagas Disease
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called on the Brazilian government “to ensure its state-owned drug company steps up production of the only drug for Chagas disease, which affects 10 million people in Latin America,” Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley writes in her “Global Health Blog” (10/6). “Thousands of people with Chagas disease will go untreated in coming months due to a shortage of benznidazole, the first-line drug used in most endemic countries,” according to a MSF press release and a related article published by the organization. According to the press release, MSF has stopped diagnosing Chagas in Paraguay and has suspended new projects in endemic areas of Bolivia due to the shortage (10/5).
News Highlights: Brewer Defends Request For Exchange Funds
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
A selection of today’s opinions and editorials from around the nation.
Public Perceives Health Law Parts Better Than Whole
Some of the law’s specific provisions draw stronger support than the entire package, but the real key to the measure’s future is increasingly linked to President Barack Obama’s polling numbers.
Health Interests Make Cases To Super Committee
For instance, hospital groups are urging the panel not to reduce bad-debt payments, saying such a step would take a toll on the hospital safety net. Others are asking that entitlements in general and Medicare specifically be protected.
Research Roundup: Health Disparities; Rx Drug Abuse In Medicare Part D
This week’s reports come from Health Affairs, the Government Accountability Office, The Kaiser Family Foundation, the Urban Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Archives of Internal Medicine.
FAO Report Warns Increases In Cereal Production May Not Be Enough To Offset Global Economic Downturn
Worldwide cereal production is expected to increase in 2011-2012, but “there is uncertainty about the improvement’s impact on food security because of the global economic slump and increased risks for recession,” according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report released on Thursday, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.
First Edition: October 7, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, reports about what the Institute of Medicine recommends in terms of the criteria and methods the Department of Health and Human Services should follow in developing the health law’s essential benefits package.
Hints Of Progress Emerge From ‘Super Committee’ Deliberations
A top GOP House lawmaker hopes the deficit-cutting panel will focus entirely on health care costs to reach the $1.2 trillion savings target. Meanwhile, in the background, the Wall Street Journal reports that nearly half of all U.S. households receive government benefits, with about 34% getting means-tested assistance such as Medicaid.
CLASS Implementation Oversight Listed In HHS Work Plan
But GOP lawmakers are seeking an actuarial report from the Department of Health and Human Services that may offer insights into this controversial long-term care insurance program’s fiscal viability.
Foreign Affairs Committee Votes To Prohibit U.S. Funding To U.N. Population Fund
The Republican-led House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted Wednesday to approve a bill that would prohibit the U.S. government from providing funding to the U.N. Population Fund, an organization “that helps women and children in developing countries with reproductive health and family planning,” Agence France-Presse reports (Cassata, 10/5). “House Republicans say they are pushing the legislation because the fund, known as the UNFPA, is complicit in China’s controversial one-child policy, which enforces abortion and sterilization,” the Huffington Post writes (10/5).
Debt Panel Medicaid Cuts Could Have Major Impact On State Budgets
Also, in other Medicaid news, a Florida official testifies in court that the state system for children has no major problems while criticism grows of plan to turn over the Medicaid program to managed care companies.
Poor Dental Care Leads To Health Problems, Costs
Meanwhile, a survey finds that Americans are open to new options for dental care to help address the high costs and shortage issues.
‘Bad’ Hospitals May Treat Larger Share Of Poor Patients, Study Finds
These hospitals may now also face financial hardship as penalties for giving lower quality care kick in.
With Economic Pressure, Work Patterns, More People Lose Insurance
The Des Moines Register examines a new report on the decline in employer-based health insurance and The Philadelphia Inquirer highlights the increasing number of people losing insurance because of the economic downturn. In Georgia, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution finds more people turning to high-deductible insurance policies.
“The [U.S.] government has said it is hopeful that Zambia will be able to reduce maternal and child mortality, and has pledged to contribute” millions in funding to programs to help further that goal, the Times of Zambia reports. “Speaking during a meeting between U.S. government officials and the media, Global Health Initiative (GHI) Executive Director Lois Quam pledged her government’s commitment to partnering with the Zambian government in order to address major health concerns in the country,” the newspaper adds.
On Campaign Stump, Obama Embraces ‘ObamaCare’
Also on the trail, a conservative group has launched ads aimed at derailing Mitt Romney’s run for the GOP presidential nomination. One of their reasons: his record on health reform while governor of Massachusetts. Meanwhile, at a fundraiser, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius charges Republicans with turning back the clock on women’s health.
