Latest KFF Health News Stories
Bachmann Victory, Pawlenty Dropout Could Alter GOP Health Care Tone
Bachmann is reiterating her message that the health law should be repealed.
Perry’s Candidacy Shines Light On Health Care Record, Beliefs
Like other Republican candidates, the Texas governor vows repeal of the health law.
11th Circuit Court Of Appeals Finds The Health Law’s Individual Mandate Unconstitutional
The 2-to-1 decision marks a major blow to the Obama administration in its legal battle over the health law. But in the ruling, which addresses the challenge filed by 26 states, the court also disagreed with a lower court’s ruling and will allow other provisions of the law to remain “legally operative.”
Pelosi Adds Her Picks To Deficit Reduction Committee
With House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s selections now made for the ‘super committee,’ the panel is complete. The next step: analyzing what positions they will bring to the negotiations and what the likelihood is that the group will strike a deal.
With Panelists Now In Place, Possible Dynamics Of A Deal Emerge
News outlets analyze how the health law and specific parts of the health industry will fare under various deficit panel scenarios.
Mixed Reports From Aid Organizations In Somalia After Al-Shabab Pulls Out Of Mogadishu
The news from the Horn of Africa is “mixed,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” reports, adding, “More food is getting through and security has improved for now, but tens of thousands of children have already died and many more are at risk.” According to NPR, “Aid groups were pleased last week when al-Shabab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, pulled out of the capital, Mogadishu. That made a dangerous country a little bit less so for aid workers” (Keleman, 8/10).
IRIN Examines Access To Water And Sanitation In Zambia
IRIN examines access to water and sanitation in Zambia, where “only 58 percent of Zambians have access to adequate sanitation and 13 percent lack any kind of toilet,” according to a 2008 study by the local non-governmental organization Water and Sanitation Forum.
Multi-Prong Approach Needed To Fight Famine In Somalia
“The Obama administration deserves credit for acting in advance to ameliorate the effects” of drought in East Africa, a New York Times editorial states, noting that USAID has been working since last summer, when the crisis was predicted, to “plac[e] food and other supplies in Kenya, Djibouti and South Africa” and “working on programs to help Somalia and other countries improve food production to avert future crises.”
State Highlights: Appeals Court Upholds Ariz. Abortion Law
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
International Community, Especially China, Must Invest More In African Agriculture And Health
A drought and “security crisis as a result of political conflicts, civil war and anarchy” in Somalia are to blame for the famine recently declared by the U.N., but “[t]he international community is also to blame for responding too slowly and neglecting its responsibilities in this preventable disaster,” a Lancet editorial says. “The USA, Europe, and other wealthy donors waited until pictures of starving children and desperate women made the evening news to hand over funds. China, Africa’s second largest trading partner after the USA, merely said it would pay ‘close attention’ to the disaster, and only pledged a modest $14 million of food aid on August 5, after U.S. House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, urged the country to do more,” the editorial states.
GOP Presidential Hopefuls Spar Over Health Policy Issues
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney defended parts of the state’s health overhaul he signed into law as the chief executive, while Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty also exchanged health policy barbs.
Climate Change To Affect Spread Of Malaria In India, Study Says
Over the next 20 years, “[c]limate change is likely to spread malaria to new areas in the Indian Himalayas, and lengthen the periods in which the infection is spread in a number of districts, according to projections [.pdf] from” researchers at the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi, and published in a special issue of Current Science on Wednesday, SciDev.Net reports.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in a speech at the International Food Policy Research Institute on Thursday that the U.S. has pledged an additional $17 million in emergency food aid to the Horn of Africa, with $12 million going to humanitarian operations in Somalia, Voice of America writes (Baragona, 8/11). “Clinton said
GOP Lawmaker Wants Health IT Study To Focus On Errors
Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting that the nation’s push for electronic medical records include a study of the medical error rates associated with this technology.
States Slashing At Least $4.7 Billion From Medicaid Plans
Reuters reports on a study of state cuts by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Also, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is looking to expand its Medicaid business and a California study explores the high number of young people without insurance.
Research Roundup: N.C. Health Centers Save Money
This week’s studies come from the Archives Of Internal Medicine, George Washington University School Of Public Health And Health Services, the National Bureau Of Economic Research, the Journal Of Nursing Care Quality and the Clinical Orthopedics And Related Research.
Sebelius Talks Health Insurance Exchanges
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took questions from PBS Newshour viewers about these new health insurance marketplaces that were envisioned in the health law. Also in the news, analysis of the recess appointment of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Donald Berwick and more about what implementation activities are happening at the state level.
Viewpoints: Brownback’s ‘Snub’; The ‘Risks’ Of Medicaid Cuts; Congressional Alums On Debt Talks
A selection of opinions and editorials from news sources around the country.
