Latest KFF Health News Stories
House Republicans Launch New Attacks On Health Law Regulations
The medical-loss ratio requirement is one of the prime GOP targets. Democrats responded that Republicans were trying to roll-back key consumer protections. In other health law implementation news, HHS announced new funding for community health centers, and groups interested in setting up health insurance co-ops are seeking certain HHS “tweaks” in the regulations.
Funding For International Family Planning Programs Critical For Reproductive Health Efforts
In an opinion piece in Population Service International’s “Impact” magazine, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) writes, “Unfortunately, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has empowered extremists with zeal for both broad, haphazard budget cuts and a commitment to rolling back women’s health rights,” adding, “Further reducing or eliminating funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs would mean more unintended pregnancies, more maternal deaths and more children who lose their mothers during childbirth,” as well as “more abortions as fewer women have the ability to control when they become pregnant and how many children they have.” She concludes, “With the global population expected to surpass seven billion, we can only expect that the unmet need for family planning services, which currently exists for an estimated 215 million women globally, will only increase. And unfortunately, so will the health disparities and instability that can result from allowing those needs to go unmet if Congress and the administration do not make this program a priority” (9/15).
Prevention Is Global Health Community’s Greatest Challenge In Fight Against Chronic Diseases
David Watkins, a resident physician in the Department of Medicine and the Internal Medicine Global Health Pathway at the University of Washington, and Jim LoGerfo, a professor of Medicine and Global Health at the university, write in a Seattle Times opinion piece, “A new pandemic has emerged and is beginning to overshadow all others,” adding, “The chronic-disease pandemic will be the ‘face’ of global health in the coming decades … an insidious pandemic for those who are affected, causing slow and subtle declines in health over years.” They write, “In addition to providing cost-effective medicines for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, the prevention of cases will be our greatest challenge. Chronic diseases require large public-health interventions and improvements to primary health-care systems” (9/15).
U.N. Expresses Concern Over Flooding In Pakistan; UNICEF Says 2.5M Children Affected
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern over widespread flooding in Pakistan and “pledged the United Nations’ continued commitment to supporting the government in its efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs of the more than five million people in the affected areas,” the U.N. News Centre reports. In a statement, Ban said he is “particularly worried about the situation in the southern area of Sindh province where people are in urgent need of food, shelter, safe water and access to health services,” according to the news service.
Congressional Cuts To Global Health R&D Spending Would Hinder Preparations For New Pandemic Threats
The movie “‘Contagion’ is fiction, but truth closely trails behind. It tells an effective story of why we need new vaccines, tests, drugs, and other tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases to address existing and emerging global health threats,” Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in an opinion piece in The Hill’s “Congress Blog.” She notes the world has “been dealing with multiple new threats” over the past few years, adding, “We will surely face new pandemic threats, and we already face other emerging ones such as dengue fever and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB).”
Public Health Organizations Fear Industries May Manipulate Outcomes Of U.N. Summit On NCDs
“A group of public health organizations said on Friday they were concerned that industries selling fatty foods, alcohol and cigarettes could hijack a United Nations meeting on how to tackle chronic disease in order to protect their own interests,” Reuters reports. “In a letter to the Lancet medical journal, more than 140 international health organizations and campaign groups said the United Nations should ensure industry lobby groups are not able to manipulate the September 19-20 meeting and its outcome,” writing, “There are clear conflicts for the corporations that contribute to and profit from the sales of alcoholic beverages, foods with high fat, salt, and sugar contents, and tobacco products — all of which are important causes of [non-communicable diseases (NCDs)],” according to the news service (Kelland, 9/15).
Leaders Should Push For More Frontline Health Workers
“Innovation can transform a company, a culture, and even the world. But innovation doesn’t have to come in the form of a gadget. It can come in the form of a smiling neighbor knocking at a family’s door, toting some basic supplies and the skills to address matters of life and death,” Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece.
Plans For New Hospital Outside Detroit Raise Questions
Developments in hospital news also include an analysis of Maryland’s success with rate regulation, the economic power of health care jobs in San Francisco and reports that a Mass. hospital system is launching a health plan.
House Members Launch First-Ever Bipartisan Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus
Democratic and Republican House members at a press briefing on Thursday formally introduced the first-ever bipartisan Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, along with its funding proposals, the Washington Independent reports. Through the caucus, led by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), “59 Democrats and Republicans have united in pledging to spend more money for research and prevention efforts to combat the spread of AIDS domestically and worldwide,” according to the news service (Resnick, 9/15). “Prior to Thursday, similar groups in Congress contained only Democrats,” the Huffington Post notes (9/15). According to CQ HealthBeat, “the launch came as advocates also worry about the impact of actions by the deficit-cutting super-committee that could affect research, treatment and health care related to HIV/AIDS” (Norman, 9/15).
List Of Top-Performing Hospitals Includes Small And Rural Hospitals
The Joint Commission found that these facilities heading its list use evidence-based processes that are linked to positive patient outcomes, Medscape reports.
World Should Provide Funding For Peacekeeping Troops To Ensure Humanitarian Aid Routes In Somalia
With the retreat of the Islamist extremist group al-Shabab out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where famine is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, “the U.N.-backed peacekeeping force can and should be quickly expanded,” according to Somalia’s prime minister and the U.N. envoy to the nation, in order to “allow the force to move out from the capital to secure routes for aid,” a Washington Post editorial states.
Viewpoints: Support For HPV Vaccinations; Compassion And GOP Debates
A diverse selection of opinions and editorials.
Medicaid Officials Push Florida, Reach Agreement ‘In Principle’ With Texas
Texas and Florida have requested waivers from the federal government to restructure their Medicaid programs.
Bioethicists Up The Ante In Bachmann’s HPV Brouhaha
Since Monday’s GOP presidential primary debate, Michele Bachmann, a Republican candidate, has been under the microscope for criticizing fellow GOP hopeful Rick Perry for his policy in Texas requiring girls to get the Gardisil vaccine against HPV. Now, a bioethicist in Pennsylvania has offered Bachmann $10,000 if she can prove her claim about the vaccine’s link to mental retardation and another has offered $1,000 if the mother Bachmann referred to will release her child’s medical records.
Perry Attacks Romney On Mass. Health Plan, Similarities To Obama
In a campaign swing through Iowa, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry drew distinctions between himself and Mitt Romney, another Republican presidential candidate, by highlighting the similarities between the federal health law and the Massachusetts health plan that became law while Romney was the state’s governor.
CLASS Act Criticism Continues, But New Report Sees ‘Fixes’
Though conventional wisdom and partisan positions suggest the program is fiscally “out of whack,” experts say there are multiple ways to try to make it more sound.
New York Times Examines International Response To Somali Famine
“Twenty years after the central government collapsed,” Somalia is facing drought, food insecurity and conflict larger in scale than when famine conditions hit the nation in the 1990s, “[a]nd given the world’s limited interest in a major intervention, that is not likely to change anytime soon,” the New York Times reports in a news analysis on the situation.
Medicare Advantage Premiums To Fall 4% In 2012
As premium costs fell, enrollment rose
MedPAC Prepares ‘Doc Fix’ Proposal With Full Cost Offset
The plan takes the commission into an area it generally tries to avoid: how to pay for such a major change to the Medicare system. Its suggestion is to pay for the SGR fix by reducing payments to specialists and imposing cuts on other parts of the health care sector.
