Latest KFF Health News Stories
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
AP: Military Retirees To Experience Higher Health Premium Costs
Beginning Saturday, military retirees will pay more for their health coverage, and more cost increases are on the way.
Hospitals Confront Budget Strains, Debt, Market Pressure
News outlets offer a variety of reports on how hospitals are faring in the health care marketplace. The outlook is full of challenges.
Gingrich Unveils New ‘Contract With America’
The updated “Contract” makes priorities out of repealing the federal health care law and replacing it with a market-based program that includes tax breaks for those who purchase insurance. Meanwhile, the health care records of GOP presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Mitt Romney draw a new round of barbs – from each other and the White House.
Calif. Medicaid Case Pits Top Democrats Against Obama Administration
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday on the case, which originated in California, and raises a central question: Do individuals have the right to sue a state for its administration of the Medicaid program?
CLASS Act Optimism; Essential Benefits Report Anticipation
News outlets report on these health law implementation topics, including news that some advocates say the Obama administration’s upcoming releasde of an analysis of the CLASS program is a positive sign. Meanwhile, the Institute of Medicine is expected to unveil its recommendations for medical coverage standards next week.
Hospital, Physician Groups Advance Interests In Deficit Reduction Debate
Hospital executives will lobby Congress next week to raise the eligibility age for Medicare instead of reducing payments to hospitals. Doctors are ginning up their grass-roots efforts to pressure the ‘super committee’ to repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula.
Supreme Court Refuses To Enforce Texas Sonogram Law
The legal wrangling comes as both cases continue in court. Meanwhile, groups supporting abortion rights filed suit to overturn a new North Carolina law restricting access.
First Edition: September 30, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how new and old health policy positions are playing on the campaign trail.
“The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria approved an action plan Monday in response to recommendations made recently by the High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanism (HLP),” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports, adding, “The board stated that it accepts the underlying analysis made by the panel and that it ‘presents a compelling case for a rapid and urgent transformation of the Global Fund.'”
NGOs, Government Face Challenges In Preventing Fistula In DRC
Inter Press Service examines the challenges that non-governmental organizations and the government face in trying to prevent fistula among women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 12,000 cases are recorded annually because of sexual violence, early marriage and complications in childbirth, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Poverty, early pregnancy and marriage, sexual violence, and a lack of education and knowledge about the condition contribute to its prevalence, IPS reports (Chaco, 9/27).
GlobalPost Examines How Indian City Of Surat Cleaned Up After 1994 Plague Outbreak
GlobalPost reports how, spurred by an outbreak of the pneumonic plague in 1994, the Indian city of Surat “successfully went from one of the country’s dirtiest cities to one of its cleanest in 18 short months.” The news service writes that “after 54 residents died and some 300,000 fled to escape a possible quarantine, the people who stuck around were willing to get with the program — working to eliminate the tons of garbage and overflowing sewers that had inundated the city with disease-carrying rats.”
Increased Focus On Vaccine For Dengue Fever Is Critical To Curb Spread Of Disease
In this GlobalPost opinion piece, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Husein Laljee Dewraj professor and head of the Division of Maternal and Child Health at the Aga Khan University Medical Center in Karachi, Pakistan, and Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and former director of the Division of Vaccines and Immunization at PAHO, examine the need for a dengue fever vaccine as Pakistan struggles to curb an outbreak of the disease that to date has killed 60 people and has infected more than 8,000. “The need for a dengue vaccine is clear,” and “[w]ithout a vaccine to prevent dengue, we must redouble our efforts to effectively treat this infectious threat, starting with improving diagnostics,” they write.
Food Aid Reaches Almost Half Of Somalis In Need But Threat Of Disease Looms, U.N. Agency Says
“The U.N. on Wednesday said food assistance has reached nearly half the Somalis in need, [and] it warned cases of diarrhea and cholera could spike with the seasonal rains expected in October,” the Associated Press reports (9/28). “However, the report released Tuesday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that four million Somalis remain in crisis nationwide, and that 750,000 people risk death in the Horn of Africa nation within the next four months,” according to VOA News.
“The Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), which is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, [on Wednesday] announced that it decided to stop one arm of a study involving more than 5,000 women in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda” after “an interim review of the ongoing trial by an independent monitoring board … found that the drug tenofovir when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) had less effect in protecting women than anticipated,” Science Magazine’s “Science Insider” blog reports. “Although the board did not offer any specifics on how many women became infected on the drug versus placebo, they said continuing with the tenofovir arm was ‘futile’ as it would not yield meaningful results,” the blog writes.
Obama Administration Asks High Court To Rule On Health Law
The Justice Department’s formal appeal puts to rest speculation about the administration’s legal strategy. In addition, Republican state attorneys general separately asked the Supreme Court for a verdict early next year. Many observers say the new timeline will make the court’s ultimate finding a factor in the presidential election.
Analyzing The Health Law’s Tax Credits And The CLASS Act’s Future
This round-up of health law implementation news also includes a report that the comment period for state health exchanges has been extended and news that Catholic organizations have stepped-up their opposition to the measure’s requirement that contraceptive services be covered.
Small Phase I Trial Shows HIV Vaccine Candidate Is Most Powerful To Date
Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed a small Phase I human clinical trial of an HIV vaccine candidate that granted 90 percent of 30 study participants an immunological response against the virus, Gizmag reports. “The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and ‘has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,’ says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC’s National Biotech Centre,” the magazine writes (Borgobello, 9/28).
