Latest KFF Health News Stories
House GOP Lawmakers Launch New Investigation Into Planned Parenthood
House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., sent Planned Parenthood a six-page letter earlier this month requesting financial information and details on how the women’s health organization keeps federal funds separate from abortion services.
L.A., DeKalb County, Ga. Revisits Cuts To Public Workers’ Health Benefits
Los Angeles officials are challenged on their authority to make changes and, in Georgia, officials have delayed their vote after concerns were raised about costs of the popular program.
Debt Panel Operates In Secret, Eyes ‘Dual Eligibles’ As Source Of Savings
The ‘super committee’ is taking a look at proposals to reduce spending on this population, which qualifies for both Medicare and Medicaid and is made up of the sickest and poorest American citizens. In the background, The New York Times examines what congressional “short-term fixes” say about the legislative body.
Scaling Up Communication And Coordination Biggest Challenge In GAVI’s $1B Vaccine Initiative
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, responds to the GAVI Alliance’s announcement on Tuesday that it will supply more than $1 billion in childhood vaccines to 37 of the world’s poorest countries, writing, “As the Alliance takes perhaps the most significant step ever toward increasing access to lifesaving immunization with this new and exciting round of country approvals, the challenge will be to ensure that every piece of the puzzle is in place to deliver on GAVI’s tremendous promise.”
South Sudan Facing Chronic Food Shortages, U.N. Agencies Say
U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), are warning that South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, “will face chronic food shortages next year due to internal and border insecurity, erratic rains and a huge influx of returnees from the North,” IRIN reports. “U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Lise Grande said more than three million people (36 percent of the population) in South Sudan were classed as moderately or severely food insecure in 2011, and the burden was increasing,” IRIN writes (9/27).
Think Creatively To Financially Support Global Health And Development Goals
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and Gro Brundtland, a board member of the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, the former prime minister of Norway, and the director-general emeritus of the WHO, discuss the notion of “innovative financing for development” and how, “[f]aced with impending fiscal constraints, the international community has devised several promising financing models to protect investments in global health.”
Philippines Health Officials Warn Of Disease Risk Following Typhoon Nesat
“Philippines authorities are warning of possible water-borne disease outbreaks following Typhoon Nesat,” which ripped through the country on Tuesday causing widespread damage including power outages, flooding and landslides, IRIN reports (9/28). According to Reuters, at least 21 people have been killed by the storm and its consequences (Mogato, 9/28).
With ALMA Scorecard, African Leaders Are Taking Responsibility In Malaria Fight
The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) is “spearheading the fight against malaria” in Africa, bringing together 40 heads of state and “offer[ing] a compelling example of what is possible through co-operation, leadership, commitment, and sound management of national and international funds,” Tanzania President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete writes in a post on the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog.” With the launch of the “groundbreaking” ALMA scorecard for accountability and action last week, leaders are now able “to measure our own performance against a set of key malaria metrics including national policies, financial controls, delivery of prevention and treatment commodities, and, most importantly, lives saved,” Kikwete writes.
IRIN Examines Rise In New Leprosy Cases In Remote Region Of Madagascar
IRIN examines an increase in new leprosy cases in Antalaha, a once-prosperous vanilla-exporting town in a remote region of Madagascar, where a 2009 military-supported coup brought the suspension of some foreign aid and trade benefits. The news service writes, “While people are becoming poorer and more susceptible to illness, the public health care system is receiving less money from the government.”
Thanks From Global Fund Executive Director Kazatchkine
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, “[a]long with our partners, both donors and implementers, [is] changing the story of scores of nations that were once devastated by three killer diseases — diseases which seemed invincible,” Global Fund Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece, adding “we are now saving more than one million lives every year.”
African Leaders Showing ‘Clear Commitment’ To Fighting Malaria
“The focused attention that malaria has received by African governments and international organizations has had a major impact, with the rates of mortality coming down dramatically in the continent,” and the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) has helped lead this campaign, an IPP Media editorial states. However, “[a]s long as malaria continues to be Africa’s leading killer, little progress can be recorded in other endeavors, because of its insidious effect,” the editorial writes, noting that two percent of Africa’s GDP is lost annually because of the disease.
Aborigines Have Higher STD Rates Than General Australian Population
Aborigines in Australia have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia than the country’s general population, according to research by the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute and reported on Tuesday at a sexual health conference, the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.
Bill Gates Arrives In Nigeria To Discuss Polio Eradication Efforts
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday, where he held talks with government officials and traditional leaders to discuss polio eradication efforts in the country’s worst-hit northwestern region, Agence France-Presse reports (9/27). During the three-day trip, Gates, along with the foundation’s CEO, Jeff Raikes, will “follow up … on the Abuja Commitments to Polio Eradication, in which Nigerian federal and local government officials committed in 2009 to have at least 90 percent of children immunized against polio toward its eradication,” Daily Times Nigeria writes.
U.S. Aid Groups Criticize U.S. Government’s Response To Sending Food Donations To North Korea
“Several American aid groups are criticizing the U.S. government delay on deciding whether to resume large-scale food donations to North Korea” after recent flooding deteriorated health and food security in the country, VOA News reports. The five U.S.-based, non-governmental organizations “warn that if substantial aid is not permitted in the next six to nine months, many vulnerable people in the impoverished communist state could die from starvation,” the news service writes.
First Edition: September 28, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the costs of employer insurance plans and the final installment of KHN’s “Building Ambitions” series about children’s hospitals.
Rising Health Insurance Costs Shifted To Employees, Survey Finds
Family plan premiums averaged $15,073, while coverage for single employees grew 8 percent to $5,429. Workers paid an average of $921 toward the premium of single coverage and $4,129 for family plans. Read summaries from the today’s news coverage.
WHO Releases Global Survey Of Worst, Best Cities For Air Pollution
“Cities in Iran, India, Pakistan and the capital of Mongolia rank among the worst on the planet for air pollution, while those in the United States and Canada are among the best, according to the first global survey released Monday by the World Health Organization,” the Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle reports. “The list, which relies on country-reported data over the past several years, measures the levels of airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometers — so-called PM10s — for almost 1,100 cities,” the news service writes (9/27).
