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Arizona struggles with severe Medicaid cuts; Medicaid fraud task force targets abuse in Iowa

Doctors and health advocates are up in arms over significant cuts to Arizona's Medicaid program to save $27 million, but the worst is yet to come: A $1 billion budget shortfall is expected next year.

12 Oct 2010

The Atlantic reports on potential challenges to passage of the International Violence Against Women Act

The Atlantic looks at the challenges facing the passage of I-VAWA (S.2982, HR. 4594), or the International Violence Against Women Act, which was recently delayed in Congress.

11 Oct 2010

Political Ads, rhetoric on health law heating up races in Alaska, Nevada, Pennsylvania

Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller said this week that his family took benefits years ago from Medicaid and a state program for low-income children and pregnant women despite his criticism of entitlement programs, The Associated Press reports.

11 Oct 2010

Insurer funds business PAC supporting Calif. GOP insurance commissioner candidate, other health politics

A California Chamber of Commerce political action committee bankrolled in part by insurance companies is funding TV ads supporting Republican Mike Villines in his quest to become state insurance commissioner, the Los Angeles Times reports.

8 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 7, 2010

Today's headlines include stories on waivers given some companies that offer only minimal health insurance coverage, insurers' political efforts during this campaign season and efforts in New York to bar the use of food stamps to buy soda.

7 Oct 2010

Health care votes haunt anti-abortion Dems; Republicans confront challenges with 'pledge'

Anti-abortion Democrats are facing stiff opposition in their bids for re-election because of their votes for health reform. Organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List and other anti-abortion groups are now attacking former allies who once sided with them on abortion. "Now, SBA List is engaged in a multimillion-dollar attack on its former allies, replete with bus tours and billboards alleging that members 'voted for taxpayer-funded abortion.'

7 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 6, 2010

Today's headlines include reports about the early legal tests facing the new health law and more on the politics swirling around the measure's sweeping reforms.

6 Oct 2010

GHI won't compromise PEPFAR, Global AIDS Coordinator says at House Foreign Affairs' Committee hearing

During a House Committee on Foreign Affairs' hearing on the future of PEPFAR Wednesday, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby assured lawmakers that the decision by President Barack Obama to make PEPFAR part of the president's Global Health Initiative (GHI) would not compromise "the widely praised plan," CQ HealthBeat reports.

1 Oct 2010

First Edition: September 30, 2010

In today's news, McDonald's may stop providing employee health benefits unless a new health law requirement is waived.

30 Sep 2010

Teen birth rates in US still highest among developed countries

Teen birth rates in the United States are still 33 percent higher than in New Zealand, the developed country with the next highest incidence — even though U.S. rates have fallen from a high of 62 per 1,000 teens in the early 1990s to a record low of 41 in 2005, a new study finds.

29 Sep 2010

Adolescent girls who have abortions no more likely to become depressed: Study

A new study has determined that teenagers who have abortions are no more likely to become depressed or have low self-esteem than their peers whose pregnancies do not end in abortion.

27 Sep 2010

GOP lawmakers formally 'pledge' to repeal health law, and more

In their just-released campaign manifesto, "A Pledge to America," Republican lawmakers say repealing the health overhaul law would be among their goals if they retake Congress, The New York Times reports. Repeal comes alongside goals like the permanent extension of Bush tax cuts, spending caps, and the recouping of unspent money from President Obama's stimulus last year.

24 Sep 2010

HHS urged not to cover contraception or sterilization in health plans

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not require coverage of contraception or sterilization in group and individual health plans as part of "preventive" services for women, said representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as HHS continued its deliberations on a final list of required preventive services under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

21 Sep 2010

Opinions: MDGs

"The overarching and noble goal [of this week's Millennium Development Goal (MDG) summit in New York] is reducing global poverty. But the most compelling and achievable objectives - huge reductions in maternal and child mortality worldwide - will be severely undermined if the Obama administration either directly or covertly integrates abortion into the final outcome document," Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

21 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 20, 2010

Today's headlines include news about the political positioning of both Democrats and Republicans on health reform, the mid-term elections and GOP plans to repeal and replace.

20 Sep 2010

Maternal mortality worldwide declines by over one-third since 1990, U.N. report says

Maternal mortality has declined by more than one-third since 1990, according to a report from U.N. agencies released on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. But the agencies warned that the rate of progress was too slow and that the decline still misses the maternal mortality Millennium Development Goal target of a three-quarters cut (9/15).

16 Sep 2010

Maternal mortality decreases by 34%, but 1000 still die a day

The number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 34% from an estimated 546 000 in 1990 to 358 000 in 2008, according to a new report, Trends in maternal mortality, released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank.

15 Sep 2010

Professor Nygren reviews current state of IVF safety

Now a review by the Chair of the international body which collects data on IVF concludes that IVF is generally safe, although he stresses that patients need to be made aware of the slight risks, and that we need to continue to monitor the results of the technique.

14 Sep 2010

Also in Global Health News: India's antibiotic use; Abstinence curriculum in China; Child, maternal health in India; Plumpy'nut; PEPFAR funds to Uganda

"The health ministry has formed a committee to frame a policy for antibiotic use, following an uproar over a Lancet study that traced a drug-resistant bacterial superbug's origins to India," LiveMint.com reports. The panel will also look into the "excessive use of antibiotics among Indians," partly fueled by self-medication, that has increased resistance to the drugs. The article notes that the Indian government "rejected the findings of the report" but has "taken note of a lack of policy on antibiotics" (Pandeya, 9/3).

7 Sep 2010

Colo. lawmaker pushes bill to permit stem cell research

Politico reports that as "Congress prepares to return for a limited pre-election agenda, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said she has picked up wide support for her bill to permit embryonic stem-cell research and expects it will pass this month. Although it has been strongly opposed by anti-abortion activists, she voiced confidence that the measure will be a political boost for its backers as well as good policy.

4 Sep 2010