Poverty News and Research

RSS

Study finds high mortality rates in rural hospitals

In an analysis that included data on more than 10 million Medicare beneficiaries admitted to acute care hospitals with a heart attack, congestive heart failure, or pneumonia between 2002 and 2010, 30-day mortality rates for those admitted to critical access hospitals (designated hospitals that provide inpatient care to individuals living in rural communities) increased during this time period compared with patients admitted to other acute care hospitals, according to a study in the April 3 issue of JAMA.

3 Apr 2013

Indiana House committee approves alternative option for Medicaid expansion

The legislation would use the state's Healthy Indiana Plan to add coverage for 400,000 low-income residents.

3 Apr 2013

Eight new grant recipients to receive funding to conduct health impact assessments

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, today announced eight new grant recipients that will receive funding to conduct health impact assessments, or HIAs.

2 Apr 2013

Post-2015 framework will fail in tackling inequality without inclusion of disability

"The communiqué released at the end of the U.N. high-level panel meeting on the post-2015 development agenda failed to mention disability, repeating in Bali the same omission notable in last month's official communiqué from the Monrovia meeting," Dominic Haslam, director of policy and strategic program support at Sightsavers, and Virginia Kamowa, global advocacy coordinator for the organization, write in The Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog.

2 Apr 2013

Federal officials look to mass marketing to sell health law

The administration faces a tough challenge to get the public to understand and accept the health law -- and, then, to sign up the millions without coverage.

2 Apr 2013

Research roundup: Despite some cuts, hospitals will benefit from Medicaid expansion; Medicare's rising costs propel efforts to revamp the program

The authors write that, because of the health law's expansion of Medicaid coverage to adults making below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, "hospitals' public insurance revenue [will create] a larger Medicaid coverage pool.

30 Mar 2013

Tenn. governor refuses to expand Medicaid

Gov. Bill Haslam said he wants to expand health insurance coverage for low-income residents, but "on his own terms" by enrolling large numbers in private insurance plans.

30 Mar 2013

Global community failing to address health inequalities

"The goal of the WHO -- amplified ... in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- is to ensure the attainment by the entire world's people of the highest possible level of health," Calum Macpherson, director and vice president of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, writes in a Devex opinion piece.

29 Mar 2013

Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania can boost federal revenue, health care coverage

Expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania under the Affordable Care Act would boost federal revenue to the state by more than $2 billion annually and provide 340,000 residents with health insurance, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

29 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 28, 2013

Today's headlines include various stories about the health law's implementation at both the federal and state level.

28 Mar 2013

Housing and health: an interview with Hilary Thomson, Senior Investigator Scientist at the UK Medical Research Council

I have been working on this topic for 13 years. Our research programme centres around generating research evidence which can be used in public policy to promote health. This is a broad topic and investigates the potential for investment in socio-economic determinants of health, like housing, transport, welfare, employment etc, to have an impact on health.

26 Mar 2013

Some Republicans propose using Medicaid expansion dollars for private insurance

Some governors who initially opposed the health law's Medicaid expansion are proposing to use the federal money to allow low-income people to buy private insurance in the new exchanges.

26 Mar 2013

Scientists call for leaders to combine poverty, environmental goals

Writing in the journal Nature, 10 scientists from around the world "say the only chance of achieving global prosperity is for all countries to combine poverty and environmental targets," and they ask "[w]orld leaders [to] set six goals around universal clean energy, an end to water and food shortages, thriving lives and livelihoods, and healthy and productive ecosystems," the Guardian reports.

25 Mar 2013

GlobalPost blog examines first progress report for 'USAID Forward' initiative

USAID on Wednesday "released its first progress report for USAID Forward, the major reform effort it initiated in 2010 'to change the way the agency does business,'" GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports.

25 Mar 2013

International support rising for adopting universal water security

Amid changing weather and water patterns worldwide and forecasts of more severe transformations to come, calls have been growing for the UN Security Council to include water issues on its agenda.

25 Mar 2013

States leaders debate health law's Medicaid expansion, push for special deals

Coverage includes reports from Maine, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire and Texas.

22 Mar 2013

U.N. food agencies welcome Pope Francis's commitment to helping poor, hungry

"United Nations officials [on Tuesday] welcomed Pope Francis' public commitment to support those who live in poverty and suffer from hunger, and expressed their readiness to work with the new leader of the Catholic Church on these issues," the U.N. News Centre reports (3/19).

21 Mar 2013

Roundup: Calif. deal allows smaller-than-proposed reduction in home health care; Texas senate panel weighs end of life bills

A selection of health policy stories from California, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Kansas and Colorado.

21 Mar 2013

Private insurance twist on Medicaid expansion may make 'Obamacare' palatable to conservatives

Some GOP state lawmakers, especially those who do not favor expanding the health insurance program for the poor, appear to be warming to this notion.

21 Mar 2013

Philippines government must support reproductive health law

"Women in the Philippines have lacked autonomy over their bodies for decades. The overwhelming political power of the country's Catholic church leaders -- and the government's acquiescence to many of their demands -- has resulted in reproductive health care restrictions so severe they amount to human rights violations," Melissa Upreti, regional director for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights, writes in The Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

20 Mar 2013