Latest KFF Health News Stories
Major Donors Should Consider Funding For Potential Malaria Vaccine
When the results of a large clinical trial testing the effectiveness of the RTS,S malaria vaccine among children in Africa are made available later this year, “it will be time to start discussing what to do with the vaccine,” Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece. “If the vaccine is safe and effective, one of the most important questions will be how to pay for it … and even though Andrew Witty, the CEO of the vaccine’s manufacturer, GSK, has promised to price the vaccine at a point just above its production cost, this price may still end up being too high for many malaria-affected countries to pay for it,” he writes.
GlobalPost Examines GHI In Kenya
As part of its special report “Healing the World,” GlobalPost examines how the Obama administration’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) is affecting U.S. health-related work in Kenya.
World Bank Report Examines Gender Equality, Highlights Mortality Disparity Between Men And Women
The World Bank’s annual World Development Report, which was released on Sunday and this year “focuses on gender equality around the world, offers some stark facts about how women and girls fare in developing countries despite decades of progress,” the Wall Street Journal reports (Reddy, 9/18). “The most glaring disparity is the rate at which girls and women die relative to men in developing countries, according to” the report, Reuters/AlertNet reports (Curtis, 9/19).
Obama’s Debt-Reduction Plan: $3 Trillion In Savings
The proposal, which is scheduled for release today, will include $320 billion in health care savings, but it its changes to Medicare and Medicaid are less aggressive than previously considered.
GOP Candidates Quiet On Medicare’s Drug Plan
The Associated Press reports that, even with their emphasis on deficit reduction, most of the GOP presidential candidates don’t seem to be talking about the Medicare drug program, a massive entitlement with future unfunded costs of about $7 trillion, as much as the 2010 health law.
Independent Panel Calls For Stronger Financial Safeguards For Global Fund
After a six-month review of the financial systems at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a seven-member independent panel “recommended a substantial overhaul Monday in the grant organization’s practices,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The panel, led by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt and former Botswana President Festus Mogae, “said in a report the fund must improve risk management, simplify grant application processes, and place greater emphasis on results,” according to the newspaper.
New York Times Examines Possible Entry Into Global Market Of Generic Drugs For NCDs
The New York Times describes how, as the U.N. begins its meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), Chinese and Indian generic drug makers “say they are on the verge of selling cheaper copies” of costly biotech medications used to treat cancers, diabetes, arthritis and other chronic illnesses. “Their entry into the market in the next year — made possible by hundreds of millions of dollars invested in biotechnology plants — could not only transform the care of patients in much of the world but also ignite a counterattack by major pharmaceutical companies and diplomats from richer countries,” the newspaper writes.
WHO, WEF Reports Examine Cost Of Treating And Preventing, Economic Burden Of NCDs
Low-income countries “could introduce measures to prevent and treat millions of cases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for a little as $1.20 per person per year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday” in a report released on the eve of the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) taking place this week in New York, Reuters reports (Kelland, 9/19).
“World leaders at a meeting of the United Nations on Monday will agree to a deal to try to curb the spread of preventable ‘lifestyle’ diseases,” including heart disease, cancers and diabetes, also known as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), “amid concern that progress is already being hampered by powerful lobbyists from the food, alcohol and tobacco industries,” the Guardian reports. “The scale and disastrous potential of these diseases has led the U.N. to call only its second high-level summit on a health issue on Monday — the first was over AIDS in 2001. Months of negotiation have led to a draft declaration [.pdf] that will be signed at the summit,” the newspaper writes (Boseley, 9/16).
Emergency Health Workers: A Strategy To Prevent Health Problems
The New York Times reports that emergency medicine is moving into new territory by not waiting for a health crisis but instead trying to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Cigna Launches Ad Campaign For Individual Insurance Consumers
According to this Wall Street Journal article, the ads are viewed as a sign of the health industry’s growing focus on this segment of the marketplace, which is expected to expand significantly as a result of the health overhaul.
ProPublica: Docs Avoid Penalties In Suits Against Device Companies
Despite payments by drug and device companies, none of the more than 75 doctors named as participants were sanctioned.
Disabilities Strain School Resources For Special Needs Children
The Wall Street Journal reports that as budgets tighten, school officials are more aggressively scrutinizing doctors’ diagnoses that call for costly accommodations.
‘Super Committee’ Members Have Received $1.6 million From ‘Bundlers’
These contributions, which have been given over the past year to several members of the panel, come from defense, health care and tax interests.
Feds OK Mich. Request To Reduce Premium Costs For State’s Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan
Other news reports related to health law implementation include the latest on a push by the Department of Health and Human Services for state insurance exchange partnerships, speculation about the measure’s essential benefits rule and efforts on Capitol Hill to block the law’s funding.
Mayo Clinic Recruits Patients In Texas; Ga. Hospitals’ Building Boom
In state hospital news, Dallas Morning News reports on an advertising campaign by Minn.’s Mayo Clinic and two Georgia news organizations report on developments in the industry there.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Health Roundup: Minn. Orders Counseling Before Patients Get Long-Term Care
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
First Edition: September 19, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how Medicare and Medicaid will fare in President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction plan.
UAW Says New Pact With GM Preserves Health Benefits
The union says the agreement, reached late Friday, includes “significant improvements to health care benefits.” The automaker had said it hoped to make cuts in health costs.
