Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Roundup: N.J. Gov. Christie’s Big Health Care Changes
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Indiana Planned Parenthood To Stop Taking Medicaid Patients
The state cut funding in May but the clinics had been using $100,000 in contributions to help defray costs of seeing Medicaid patients.
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Anthem Blue Cross Agrees To Limit Rate Hikes
The Los Angeles Times reports that, in settling a class-action lawsuit, the California insurer agreed to limit rate incrases for 122,000 policy holders.
Supreme Court Accepts Case That Could Shape Field Of Personalized Medicine
Bloomberg reports that the Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the Mayo Clinic that concerns the types of diagnostic tests that can be patented.
State-Level Medicaid Cuts Could Have Impact Beyond Federal Reductions
In related news, Minnesota Public Radio reports on how the well-being of rural health providers is linked to Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement.
Controversy Surrounding McKinsey Insurance Survey Continues
Though the consulting firm released its methodology, its findings continue to draw debate and criticism. Meanwhile, Avalere released a study of its own, which seems to contradict the McKinsey report.
Obama Administration Launches Effort To Tout Medicare Preventive Benefits
The number of Medicare recipients who take advantage of these services has only increased slightly. The availability of these benefits was expanded by the health law.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including the latest on the debt-reduction talks, the next chapter in the saga surrounding a McKinsey insurance survey and the details of the Obama administration’s effort to tout the health law’s prreventive care benefits.
Strengthen Monitoring And Surveillance Of Malaria In Pregnancy Interventions
“The time of neglecting malaria in pregnancy (MIP) should be over,” Bill Brieger, senior malaria specialist at JHPIEGO, writes in a Malaria Matters blog post summarizing a session on malaria and maternal health at the recently concluded Global Health Council annual conference. He adds that “moving forward, strengthened monitoring and surveillance is needed to fine tune, revise and better target MIP interventions to make a bigger impact on reducing maternal mortality in endemic countries” (6/18).
Government And Private Sector Must Work Together On HIV Vaccine
The success of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS “has fooled us into believing HIV is under control. It is not.
IPS Examines Access To Treatment For Drug-Resistant TB
“Access to treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains compromised, especially in developing countries, because too few pharmaceutical companies manufacture quality-assured drugs,” Inter Press Service reports in an article examining how a lack of competition and a working mechanism to keep prices low “has led to skyrocketing prices.”
Public-Private Partnerships Leading To Successes In HIV Treatment And Prevention
The recent achievements in studies looking at treatment as prevention “were only made possible by the partnership between publicly funded scientists and private drug companies,” Ward Cates, president of research at FHI; Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa; and Myron Cohen, director of the UNC Division of Infectious Disease and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease, write in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post.
Focus On Men In Family Planning Programs
Scott Radloff, director of the Office of Population and Reproductive Health, writes about involving men in family planning on USAID’s “Impact Blog.” He writes: “Involving men in international family planning programs is an uphill battle.”
Experts Discuss NCDs Ahead Of U.N. Meeting
In a post on the State Department’s “DipNote” blog, Krysten Carrera, a Presidential Management Fellow in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, discusses why non-communicable diseases “represent an urgent and growing threat to global public health” (6/18).
U.N. Official Calls For Additional Food Aid For North Korea
Valerie Amos, head of the U.N. Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, on Friday “plead[ed] with international donors to overlook political difficulties in the face of a humanitarian crisis” in North Korea, where she said it is estimated six million people are in danger of not getting enough to eat, Agence France-Presse reports.
“According to a United Nations Population Fund study released Monday, more and better trained midwives could help save millions of lives in” 58 countries “identified as ‘suffering from a crisis in human resources for health,'” the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.
IPS Examines U.N. Security Council’s Dealings With ‘Non-Security’ Issues
Inter Press Service examines the changing scope of the U.N. Security Council. “[O]ver the years … the political landscape has been changing, slowly but steadily, as the U.N.’s most powerful body has continued to take up several ‘non-security’ related issues, including children and armed conflict (Aug. 1999), women, peace and security (Oct. 2000), climate change (Apr. 2007) and for the second time last week, HIV/AIDS,” IPS writes. The piece includes analysis from several experts affiliated with the U.N. (Deen, 6/17).
