Latest KFF Health News Stories
NIH Director Collins Outlines Government’s Role In Scientific Innovation
In a KQED interview, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins discussed a range of topics, including the state of medical research funding.
Obama Sharpens Health Care Message
At a political fundraiser, President Barack Obama stepped up charges against the GOP, saying the party’s policies will keep Americans uninsured. Also in the news, a Democrat in West Virginia wins a special gubernatorial election in spite of Republican efforts to tie him to Obama and the new health law.
Britain To Pledge $31M Over Four Years To Carter Center Campaign To Eradicate Guinea Worm
“At a press briefing in London on Wednesday, British officials are expected to pledge 20 million pounds ($31 million) over four years to” a campaign led by the Carter Center, the WHO, and the CDC to eradicate guinea worm, a parasitic disease that now exists only in four African countries, by 2015, the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports. Former President Jimmy Carter and British officials are urging other donors to come forward with additional funding, the news service writes (10/4). The WHO “reports it is very close to eradicating guinea worm” and that “it needs $350 million to finish the job,” VOA News notes (Schlein, 10/4).
Viewpoints: Examining The Danish Fat Tax And Anti-Cheese Billboards; Prioritizing Kids’ Vaccines
A selection of today’s opinions and editorials from around the nation.
How Common Is Palliative Care In Hospitals?
The answer, according to a survey released by the Center to Advance Palliative Care, is mixed.
State Roundup: N.Y. Authorizes Bailout Of Union Insurance Fund
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Study: Living Wills Curb Medicare Costs In High-Spending Areas
New research published in the Oct. 5 issue of JAMA found that, if end-of-life advance directives were in place, Medicare savings could be achieved if areas with high health care spending behaved more like those with low spending.
Home Health Stocks Suffer Fallout From Senate Investigation
Stocks for three home health care providers fell Tuesday after the Senate Finance Committee released findings of an investigation that indicated these companies “gamed the Medicare system.”
Medicare Enrollment Ends Early This Year
Health News Florida reports that nearly two-thirds of seniors don’t know that the Medicare enrollment period is occurring earlier than usual this year. Meanwhile, The Hill reports on one member of the U.S. Senate who is holding a strong line against raising Medicare’s eligibility age.
Shah Announces Additional Funding To Fight Food Insecurity During Visit To Ethiopia
During a visit to Ethiopia’s capital on Tuesday, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced new grant programs to help the nation address food insecurity, the Associated Press reports. Shah said the U.S. will provide $110 million to a food security program that will benefit 1.5 million people, $10 million for a nutrition program and $1.2 million for loans to farmers, the news agency notes (10/4).
Berwick Advances The Quality Cause
The Los Angeles Times reports that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chief Donald Berwick is pressing for health care quality improvements and innovations.
Pharmaceutical Companies Should ‘Get On Board’ With Unitaid’s ‘Patent Pools’
In this Guardian opinion piece, Jill Filipovic, a freelance writer and blogger at Feministe, reports on how Unitaid, an organization “largely funded through innovating financing methods, including a tax on airplane tickets,” is working to increase access to HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis treatments in developing countries through “patent pools” and urges pharmaceutical companies to “get on board.”
U.S. Investment In Global Health Strengthens Communities, Economies
“It’s time to respond … [to Americans who] have not been given a comprehensive explanation of how U.S. investments in foreign aid — particularly global health — are used or how they benefit Americans here at home,” Karl Hofmann, president and CEO of PSI, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece. “Global health investments benefit the globe. … Healthy families yield healthy societies and economies. Everyone everywhere benefits,” he states.
Small U.S. Investments In Global Health Help Strengthen Economies
In this Huffington Post opinion piece, singer and actor Mandy Moore writes that during her travels as a PSI ambassador, “sometimes the disconnect I see is truly striking: people can get cold Coca Cola, but far too infrequently malaria drugs; most own mobile phones, but don’t have equal access to pre-natal care.” Noting that technology has helped the U.S. and Europe improve health standards and therefore strengthen their economies, she writes, “It’s simple and logical, but to grow economies, the basic building block of health is necessary.”
Global Fund Is Smart Investment In Fighting Disease
“For the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund [to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria] is an invaluable partner, and the progress they have achieved is bringing us closer than ever to the reality of global health equity,” Joe Cerrell, director of the Gates Foundation’s European office, writes in an AlertNet opinion piece, adding, “Every day, programs supported by the Global Fund save at least 4,400 lives.”
Global Corporations Create Shared Value Through Social Responsibility Programs
In this post in the Guardian’s “Sustainable Business Blog,” Mark Kramer, founder and managing director of the non-profit consulting firm FSG and senior fellow at the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, examines how “[g]lobal corporations are increasingly finding ways to create shared value — pursuing business initiatives that improve social and environmental conditions while earning the company a profit and conferring a competitive advantage.”
Health Clinic In Indonesia Promotes Conservation Through Medical Care
VOA News profiles a medical clinic in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, called Alam Sehat Lestari, or ASRI, and established by American Kinari Webb, that aims to promote health and wellness through quality medical care and conservation. In addition to allowing patients to pay for health care “through non-monetary means, such as woven baskets, seedlings or labor exchanges,” clinic workers educate patients about conservation as they wait to register, and each month they visit surrounding communities to determine whether they are illegally logging from a nearby national park, the news service notes. “Communities that do not participate in illegal logging pay about 40 percent less than those that do,” according to VOA News (Schonhardt, 10/4).
