Health Care News and Research

RSS

New report shows 6.6 million children under 5 died in 2012

In 2012, approximately 6.6 million children worldwide - 18 000 children per day - died before reaching their fifth birthday, according to a new report released today by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division. This is roughly half the number of under-fives who died in 1990, when more than 12 million children died.

13 Sep 2013

Longer looks: Understanding the mind; facebook depression; planning for a successful end of life

Every week reporter Ankita Rao selects interesting reading from around the Web.

13 Sep 2013

Professional soccer team signs up to help D.C. health exchanges

On the other side of the issue, the Heritage Foundation unveils a new billboard in New York City.

13 Sep 2013

State highlights: Nation's older population strains budgets in Northeast; Detroit may replace health coverage with stipends; access to care in rural Alaska

Most of the nation's oldest population is now clustered in the Northeast and growing rapidly, according to Census data, straining medical, housing and transportation budgets and forcing lawmakers to look for new approaches. And legislators and governors are reaching the conclusion that the way to pay for the elderly is to cater to the young (Wilson, 9/12).

13 Sep 2013

With gov't. shutdown looming, GOP rift over Obamacare stalls budget bill

House Republican leaders delayed a vote Wednesday on the stopgap funding measure that would have kept the federal government financed until mid-December after conservatives balked because it didn't explicitly end funding for the health care law.

13 Sep 2013

As marketplaces get ready for opening, several states still facing debates about Medicaid expansion

Pennsylvania and Ohio are among the states where the Medicaid question is still in play this year. Meanwhile, in Arizona, an effort to get a referendum to block the expansion fails and an advocacy group vows to bring a lawsuit to stop it.

13 Sep 2013

Marketing of health law goes mainstream

The Associated Press reports that applying for coverage in new online insurance marketplaces will feel like a combination of doing your taxes and making a big purchase.

13 Sep 2013

Data shows Americans are living longer, reporting fewer symptoms of disease

Thanks to medical advances, better treatments and new drugs not available a generation ago, the average American born today can expect to live 3.8 years longer than a person born two decades ago.

13 Sep 2013

Viewpoints: GOP 'obsession' with health law prevents progress on key financial issues; the 'fantasy of fertility;' VA is 'model' for transforming U.S. medicine

Try as they might, House Republican leaders are having trouble stopping their colleagues from shooting themselves in the foot -- again. Having failed to approve any of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund federal agencies, Congress has to pass a stopgap spending bill by Sept. 30 to keep much of the federal government from shutting down.

13 Sep 2013

GWCI awarded $2.1M cooperative agreement to support Comprehensive Cancer Control programs

The George Washington University Cancer Institute has been awarded a $2.1 million cooperative agreement to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to design and implement a comprehensive technical assistance plan to support CDC-funded Comprehensive Cancer Control programs.

13 Sep 2013

For small companies and self-employed people, health law raises questions

This pair of stories from The Associated Press outlines how confusing the health law can be for both small business owners as well as the self-employed with high income.

13 Sep 2013

Federal data system for health exchanges passes a test

Reuters reports this system has now been tested and certified as secure. Meanwhile, Medicare beneficiaries are increasingly confused by the media blitz surrounding the law's new online insurance marketplaces.

13 Sep 2013

Native Americans feel burden of mental health budget cuts

Native American tribes gave up millions of acres to the federal government in the 19th century in exchange for promises of funded health care, education and housing. But time and again, those funds have been cut.

13 Sep 2013

Revised Medicaid sterilization policy supports minority women at risk for unintended pregnancies

A revised Medicaid sterilization policy that removes logistical barriers, including a mandatory 30-day waiting period, could potentially honor women's reproductive decisions, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and save $215 million in public health costs each year, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

13 Sep 2013

The final push for Obamacare

News outlets report on the ambitious plans of a handful of health insurance co-ops starting from scratch after being funded by the law, how smokers may be charged higher premiums if they don't take cessation classes and the challenge of explaining the law in multiple languages.

13 Sep 2013

Scottsdale Healthcare, TGen initiate Thunder God vine clinical trial in pancreatic cancer patients

Taking a page from Chinese herbal medicine, Scottsdale Healthcare and the Translational Genomics Research Institute today initiated the first-in-human clinical trial for pancreatic cancer patients using a compound derived from a plant known as "Thunder God vine."

13 Sep 2013

Feds to PA.: Shift some kids on CHIP to Medicaid

Federal officials denied a request by Pennsylvania to keep more than 50,000 children on the state CHIP program and have instead instructed officials there to shift the kids' coverage to Medicaid ahead of implementation of Obamacare.

13 Sep 2013

Study finds Americans enjoy more healthy years than a generation ago

The average American today can look forward to over two more years of healthy life than they could just a generation ago, Harvard researchers have found.

13 Sep 2013

AFL-CIO ramps up criticism of health law

The labor federation approved a resolution Wednesday urging changes to parts of President Barack Obama's health care law that it says would drive up the costs of union-sponsored health plans to the point that workers and employers would abandon them.

13 Sep 2013

OHE releases third edition of popular primer on health economics

The Office of Health Economics today released the third edition of its popular primer, Health Economics: An Introduction to Economic Evaluation, authored by Gisela Kobelt who has extensive hands-on experience in the field. What distinguishes this book from other such reviews are its fifteen concrete "study examples," which focus on pharmaceuticals.

12 Sep 2013