Latest KFF Health News Stories
Medi-Cal Rates Back In The News; N.C. Medicaid Faces $140 Million Shortfall
Meanwhile, in Kansas, a working group met for the first time to figure out how the state’s Medicaid program could interact with a health insurance exchange.
GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog interviewed Ambassador Jan Eliasson, former president of the U.N. General Assembly and Sweden’s former minister for foreign affairs, on how water and sanitation play a part in family planning, as the world’s population approaches seven billion. Eliasson discusses his interest in women’s reproductive health issues, strategies for increasing attention on these issues, and difficulties faced by policymakers on the issues surrounding family planning, among other topics. “We don’t realize when you look at the issues of child mortality, women’s health, or education, all the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) are affected by water and sanitation. I see a real need for a horizontal approach to health. Population issues and family planning are an integrated part of solving that problem,” he said (Donnelly, 10/26).
Roundup: Mass. Offers Plan To Cut Costs For Dual Eligibles
News outlets report on a number of state health policy issues and developments.
Gates Foundation, China Sign MOU To Work Together On Global Health, Agriculture Advances
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form a partnership to support new research and development (R&D) and production of new products for global health and agriculture, Agence France-Presse reports (10/26).
A selection of opinion articles on health policy issues from around the country.
WellPoint Profits Drop But Revenue Grows
Market Watch reports that, while it benefited from this overall trend, WellPoint has recently been hit by high medical costs for seniors in certain areas, though it expects to have the issue mitigated by 2012.
Mass. Health Care Costs Could Spell Trouble For Romney
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is not just haunted by the similarities between the federal health law and the state health overhaul he signed while governor of Massachusetts, but also by the fact that despite this state measure, Massachusetts continues to have the highest health costs in the country.
Federal Regulators To Step Up Their Rate Review Role
Politico Pro reports that these regulators will step up their involvement in rate review for association health plans after determining nearly half the states lack a satisfactory mechanism for reviewing premiums for these insurance products.
Dems Offer Mixed Views On CLASS Act’s Demise
But during a Wednesday congressional hearing, Department of Health and Human Services officials made clear that they really have stopped implementing the health law’s long-term care insurance program, despite continuing pleas to give it another chance.
New Study Highlights Range Of Health Law’s Medicaid Expansion Estimates
The study, which was posted in Health Affairs online, makes clear the unknowns that surround this piece of the health law’s implementation.
New England Journal Of Medicine Weighs In With Views On PSA Testing
In four articles in the respected medical journal, doctors assess the recent change in guidelines on screening for prostate cancer in men.
Longer Looks: Looking For The Inventor Of The Individual Mandate
This week’s reading selections come from The Atlantic, Time, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones and Governing.
DRC Government, UNICEF Campaign Immunizes 14M Children Against Polio
“Thousands of vaccination teams have traversed the vast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on foot, by motorbike, boat and car, in a campaign to immunize at least 14 million children against polio, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said,” IRIN reports. The campaign, which was run over three days beginning October 20 by the government with support from UNICEF, also provided vitamin A supplements and deworming, IRIN notes.
Seasonal Rains, Flooding Lead To Cholera Outbreak In Nigeria
“Seasonal rains cause massive damage and disease throughout Nigeria each year, and this year’s onslaught comes as international experts warn West Africa is suffering from its worst cholera outbreaks in years,” the Associated Press/ABC News reports. According to UNICEF, Nigeria “had recorded more than 21,000 cholera cases this year by the end of September” and “[a]t least 694 people have died from the disease,” the news agency writes. Twenty-five of Nigeria’s 36 states have reported cholera cases, with most coinciding with local flooding, the AP notes, adding that “almost half of Nigeria’s 150 million people lack access to clean water and proper sanitation, according to the World Health Organization” (Gambrell, 10/26).
International Community Must Help Women Fight HIV/AIDS In Swaziland
Women living with HIV in Swaziland “fight a tireless tripartite battle against HIV, the stigma it places on them, and their inferior status in Africa’s last absolute monarchy,” freelance journalist Gary Nunn writes in the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog.” Nunn recounts the story of Siphiwe Hlophe, who founded Swaziland for Positive Living (Swapol) in 2001, and writes, “Women operate at grassroots level in tackling HIV because they’re rarely trusted with real responsibility. But they are increasingly making their voices heard.”
First Edition: October 27, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, featuring details of the Super Committee’s latest action — the Dems’ $3 Trillion Debt Deal, which includes a $400 Million Medicare Plan; and the GOP counter appoach.
A Push For New ‘Grand Bargain’ On The Super Committee
The $3 trillion package offered by Democrats to reduce the deficit would include cuts to health programs, including Medicare, and new taxes.
The Guardian Examines China’s One-Child Policy
The Guardian examines China’s one-child policy and its impact. The newspaper writes that “the description of the system as a ‘one-child policy’ is misleading. Most married women in China have the chance to bear two offspring, but the entitlement to breed beyond a solitary child is determined by a complex set of rules” and factors. In fact, the policy’s “countless adjustments over the past 30 years have created a mind-bogglingly complex system that touches on everything from contraception and sterilization to pensions and tax incentives,” according to the Guardian. The newspaper notes that “across all of China, the government claims there would be more than 300 million more children without the family planning policy” and that “the nation’s population is forecast to peak around 2030,” leading “many [to] say the family planning policy had outlived its usefulness.” It also describes the policy’s effects in Henan Province, which “claims some of the greatest successes in taming demographic growth through its family planning policies” (Watts 10/25).
