Latest KFF Health News Stories
Health Law Challenge Inches Toward Supreme Court
The Thomas More Law Center formally petitioned the high court to reverse a lower court’s decision upholding the health law.
Stateline: Detailing How A Medicaid ‘Blended Rate’ Plan Would Work
One of the key parts of this approach involves changing a few of the key funding formulas that determine the amount of federal Medicaid dollars states receive.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the ever-growing U.S. health care tab and about the petition filed by a conservative legal center to bring their health law challenge to the Supreme Court.
Law Center Presses Its Health Law Challenge
News outlets report that the Thomas More Law Center formally petitioned the high court to overturn a lower court’s decision upholding the health law.
House Committee Releases Foreign Operations Spending Bill With State, USAID Funding Cuts
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday released the FY12 Foreign Relations Authorization Act “that slashes State Department funding and foreign aid,” The Hill’s “On The Money” blog reports (Wasson, 7/26).
Efforts To Fight HIV/AIDS, NTDs Should Be Integrated
“The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) produce a devastating level of chronic disability in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates suggesting that the NTD disease burden exceeds tuberculosis and is one-half that of malaria,” Julie Noblick and Richard Skolnick of George Washington University and Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial. With noted relationships between the prevalence of NTDs and HIV, the diseases “demand a public health response from the established global HIV/AIDS community, in parallel with efforts to scale up NTD control,” they argue.
Boehner Plan Faces Delay As Debt Deal Continues To Be Elusive
The delay was caused both by a Congressional Budget Office analysis that found the proposal by House Speaker John Boehner didn’t score the promised savings and by conservatives’ skepticism about the plan.
Medicare Part D Ups Patient Compliance, Reduces Hospital Costs
The findings, which were published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested that for seniors, access to affordable prescription drugs would reduce their need for emergency and short-term nursing care.
India Plans To Establish Central Foreign Aid Agency To Fight Corruption, Cut Costs
India plans to establish a central foreign aid agency, “believed to be modeled on” USAID, “to prevent funds from being misused and delays in aid delivery,” the Guardian reports. “The agency will reportedly be called the Indian Agency for Partnership in Development, overseeing $11.3bn (Rs 50,000 crore) over the next five to seven years,” the newspaper writes.
U.N. Warns 3.5M Kenyans Will Need Food Aid By September
The U.N. on Tuesday said approximately 3.5 million Kenyans will need food aid by September due to drought, “while European officials warned such crises would flare up again unless more money was directed at prevention efforts,” Reuters reports (Obulutsa/Migiro, 7/26). VOA News examined how “food security experts are looking for lessons from severe droughts of the past, when worst case scenarios were avoided” (Colombant, 7/26).
World Bank Urges China To Address NCDs Or Face Economic Consequences
In a report (.pdf) released on Tuesday, the World Bank urged China to step up its efforts to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs), “the main cause of death in the country, warning of rising health expenditure and an economic slowdown if rapid action is not taken,” Reuters reports.
U.S. Should Address Sex-Selective Abortions
The contentious nature of abortion in American politics is “distracting U.S. policymakers from what should be the real conversation in a country that leads the world in human reproductive technology: whether to allow parents to use a growing range of methods to select for characteristics like sex (or diseases that come on late in life and, perhaps one day, IQ) in their children. Because sex selection is not just a developing world problem
Des Moines Hospital Faces Review; $9 Million Hospital Bill In Tampa
In state hospital news, federal regulators have ordered Iowa officials to study the Mercy Medical Center, and Florida officials say a Tampa hospital has filed a $9.2 million claim against the estate of a former patient. In other news, officials begin the process of closing Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
New Report Is Setback For 9/11 Responders And Cancer Costs
The report concluded that medical research does not prove that those working at the World Trade Center disaster site have an increased risk of developing certain forms of cancer.
State Roundup: Cuomo’s N.Y. Home Health Reform Spurs Complaints
News outlets report on a variety of state health issues.
Two Large Insurers Profit By Americans’ Postponement Of Care
Meanwhile, HCA Holdings reported lower-than-expected earnings because of the consumer trend in which people are foregoing surgery because of the economy.
As They Age, Some Women Face Retirement Nightmare
The Fiscal Times reports that the number of adult children who provide personal care or financial assistance has more than tripled, with many people living longer with chronic conditions than in the past.
Moody’s: States Face Medicaid Budget Issues, Cuts Will Affect Hospitals
Modern Healthcare reports that hospital reimbursements – because of the end of the enhanced federal matching rate that became law as part of the 2009 stimulus package – will be pinched. In addition, congressional action and the federal debt debate is also causing concern at the state level.
