Clock Is Ticking for ‘Doc Fix,’ Medicare ‘Extenders’
December 6, 2011
KFF Health News Original
In today’s Health on the Hill, Jackie Judd and KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey discuss the prospects for an agreement this month on Medicare reimbursement rates, and what happens if nothing is done before the end of the year.
Reuters Examines Cancer In Africa
May 2, 2012
Morning Briefing
Reuters examines cancer in Africa, writing, “Most of Africa’s around 2,000 languages have no word for cancer. The common perception in both developing and developed countries is that it’s a disease of the wealthy world, where high-fat, processed-food diets, alcohol, smoking and sedentary lifestyles fuel tumor growth.” However, according to the news service, sub-Saharan Africa will see an estimated one million new cancer cases this year — “a number predicted to double to two million a year in the next decade,” and, “[b]y 2030, according to predictions from the [WHO], 70 percent of the world’s cancer burden will be in poor countries.”
Do Extra Brain Cells Offer A Clue To Autism?
By Jessica Marcy
November 10, 2011
KFF Health News Original
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reads from around the Web. Time: Study: Autistic Children Have More Brain Cells There’s growing evidence that the brains of autistic children are very different from the brains of other youngsters. Now a new study that found an excess of brain cells in children with autism comes closer […]
Romney, Santorum, Others Call For Medicare ‘Premium Support’ In New Hampshire GOP Debate
January 9, 2012
KFF Health News Original
While health care issues did not take up much of Sunday morning’s debate, the candidates agreed that Medicare should be a Rep. Paul-Ryan-style “premium support” system and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney said that, in the future, he believes wealthy Medicare recipients should have to pay more for the program.
Group Seeks To Reopen Case Over Access to Plan B
February 9, 2012
Morning Briefing
Women’s advocacy group seeks wider access to contraceptive, while study reports lowest teen pregnancy rate in decades.
Testy Santorum, Romney Tussle Over Mass. Health Reform
February 23, 2012
KFF Health News Original
In the last scheduled Republican debate, candidates Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul attacked the Obama administration on its birth control stance. Santorum dovetailed the issue into an attack of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law, which then-Gov. Romney endorsed. Here is a transcript of the health care portions of the debate:
Number Of People Worldwide With Dementia Expected To Triple By 2050; Caregivers Need Support, Report Says
April 11, 2012
Morning Briefing
The number of people living with dementia is expected to double to 65.7 million by 2030 and more than triple by 2050, with “the [current estimated] cost of treating and caring for those with the condition at $604 billion a year,” according to a report released Wednesday by the WHO and Alzheimer’s Disease International, Agence France-Presse reports (4/11). “Dementia affects people in all countries, with more than half (58 percent) living in low- and middle-income countries,” and “[b]y 2050, this is likely to rise to more than 70 percent,” according to a WHO press release.
N.Y. Malpractice Program May Offer Model For Medical Liability Cases
By Michelle Andrews
November 21, 2011
KFF Health News Original
Under the system, when a lawsuit is filed, a judge with expertise in medical matters becomes the point person for that case and helps broker a settlement.
Health On The Hill Transcript: Medicare Changes Part Of Super Committee Republicans Deal On Tax Revenues
November 9, 2011
KFF Health News Original
Mary Agnes Carey talks about what Medicare changes would be part of the latest proposal from super committee Republicans to strike a deficit reduction deal.
Affluent Seniors Could Take A Hit On Medicare
By Marilyn Werber Serafini Mary Agnes Carey
November 13, 2011
KFF Health News Original
Both Democrats and Republicans are eyeing proposals to require well-off Medicare beneficiaries to pay more for their coverage as the super committee looks for ways to hold down spending.
Tentative ‘Doc Fix’ Deal Would Cut Health Law’s Prevention Fund by $5B
February 15, 2012
Morning Briefing
The proposal would also cut Medicare payments to hospitals, other providers and clinical labs as well as Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve the poor.
Some Doctors Refuse To Treat Kids Who Have Not Been Immunized
By Michelle Andrews
September 26, 2011
KFF Health News Original
These pediatricians say they are worried about other patients in the waiting room, some of them too young to be immunized or with health problems that compromise their immune systems.
Wash. Law Requiring Pharmacies Stock Emergency Contraception Struck Down
February 23, 2012
Morning Briefing
The judge said the law was meant to force religious objectors to dispense the drug Plan B instead of simply give access to those that need it. In other cases, other federal judges blocked a challenge to a Mass. law on abortion buffer zones and said the government can’t deny health benefits to a lesbian couple.
March Issue Of BMJ’s ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ Focuses On HIV, Health Systems
February 21, 2012
Morning Briefing
Karen Grepin, assistant professor of global health policy at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, describes the March issue of BMJ’s Sexually Transmitted Infections in this post in her “Global Health Blog.” The issue, edited by Alan Whiteside, Gary Brook, Till B
CNN Examines Nodding Disease Among Children In Northern Uganda
March 20, 2012
Morning Briefing
CNN examines nodding disease, a seizure disorder that has affected at least 3,000 children in Northern Uganda, as well as children in Liberia, Sudan, and Tanzania. Though the disease has no known cause or cure, “there are clues,” the news service notes, writing, “WHO officials say 93 percent of cases are found in areas also with the parasitic worm Onchocerca Volvulus, which causes river blindness and is carried by the Black Fly. And many cases show a deficiency in Vitamin B6. Nutrition also seems to play an important role.”
Officials Looking To Cut Federal Spending Eye Medigap Policies
By Susan Jaffe
November 21, 2011
KFF Health News Original
They argue that if policies were less generous, seniors might reduce their trips to the doctor of find cheaper care, which would save the government money.
Blog Posts Report On International Treatment As Prevention Conference In Vancouver
April 26, 2012
Morning Briefing
Two separate posts in the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog report on the International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver. The first post recaps an update from Stephen Becker of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday “about the Foundation’s treatment optimization activities,” writing, “According to Becker, the Foundation acknowledges that treatment will be at the center of HIV prevention efforts, but ‘no amount of treatment will obviate the need for primary prevention modalities'” (Lubinski, 4/24). The second post reports that, “[d]espite its status as one of the poorest countries in Africa and its failed effort to garner a Round 10 grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — Malawi is moving forward to implement ‘Option B+’ for pregnant women,” meaning “pregnant and lactating women are enrolled in antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs for life, regardless of CD4 count” (Lubinski, 4/24).
Protesting Kenyans Call For Emergency Donor Conference To Raise $2B For Global Fund
January 31, 2012
Morning Briefing
“Hundreds of HIV-positive Kenyans protested outside the European Union’s Nairobi office on Monday, accusing the E.U. of causing unnecessary deaths by cutting funding to” the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, AlertNet reports. Late last year, the Global Fund announced it would not hold a new round of grants until 2014, the news service notes, adding, “The demonstrators called on the Global Fund to hold an emergency donor conference to raise $2 billion so developing countries can apply for grants this year” (Migiro, 1/30). Though no new grants will be awarded before 2014, the Global Fund “has set up what it calls a ‘transitional funding mechanism,’ which covers the continuation of essential services” of existing grants, VOA News writes (Majtenyi, 1/30).
UNICEF Appeals For $1.28B To Provide Humanitarian Assistance For Children In 25 Nations
January 30, 2012
Morning Briefing
UNICEF on Friday “appealed … for $1.28 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to children in over 25 countries this year, with nearly one-third of the total amount earmarked for the crisis in the Horn of Africa,” the U.N. News Centre reports (1/27). The agency also released its annual “Humanitarian Action for Children 2012” report, which “decried the rising levels of starvation and malnutrition among children under the age of five in many of the world’s troubled regions,” GlobalPost writes (1/27). UNICEF “said it was seeking nine percent less than in 2011, linked to lower needs in Pakistan and Haiti, but that its needs for fighting hunger had jumped by nearly 50 percent,” according to Agence France-Presse (1/28). The agency said more than one million children in Africa’s Sahel region are at risk of severe malnutrition, Reuters reports (1/27).
