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Viewpoints: WSJ on Super Tuesday; Zeke Emanuel, NY Times on electronic health records; Iowa high-risk pool concerns

Mr. Santorum is also scoring on the stump with his warnings about the threat to freedom posed by ObamaCare. Especially if the economy improves, this will be a crucial issue for Republicans in November because it reflects the great American fault line over the role of government. Yet the issue has bedeviled Mr. Romney's because of his refusal to distance himself from RomneyCare in Massachusetts and to say more than his cursory line that he'll "repeal ObamaCare."

7 Mar 2012

Incorporating gender policy in USAID programs is 'good business practice'

USAID Deputy Administrator Ambassador Donald Steinberg writes in the White House Council on Women and Girls blog, "I am proud to say that USAID" last week released "a new policy on gender quality and female empowerment, the Agency's first in 30 years," "achieving great strides and reaffirming our commitment to close the gender gap in international development."

7 Mar 2012

GOP lawmakers face strategic fits and starts in health law repeal efforts

Meanwhile, as some House Republicans push to undo the measure's cost-cutting panel, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, its advocates are springing to its defense.

7 Mar 2012

Study: Patients need greater access to their electronic medical data

Health care organizations need to do more to help patients realize the full benefits of electronic data from emerging health information exchange systems, according to a new study commissioned by Consumers Union that appears in the March 2012 Health Affairs.

7 Mar 2012

Minn. GOP offers premium savings accounts as alternative to exchanges

Minnesota Republicans are offering state-based health premium savings accounts as an alternative to a health care exchange that Democrats in the state want to implement as part of the federal health reform law.

7 Mar 2012

Research team identifies preventive care guidelines relevant to young adults

With no specific clinical preventive care guidelines targeting young adults, health care providers are missing key opportunities to improve the health of this population through preventive screening and intervention.

7 Mar 2012

Health law, contraception coverage central themes in Mass. Senate race

Indeed, Brown has wandered off the GOP reservation enough to claim some independence, but he has also toed a strong partisan line on a number of key issues: opposing President Obama's health care bill, cosponsoring a proposal to allow employers to deny certain health care coverage on moral grounds, and opposing any tax increases, even on the wealthy.

7 Mar 2012

HHS: 105 million people no longer face health insurance lifetime limits

A Department of Health and Human Services report released Monday quantified the number of Americans with health insurance who no longer face these benefit limits.

7 Mar 2012

World Bank should re-evaluate programs to reduce maternal mortality

"The World Bank boasts that it has positioned itself as a 'global leader' in reproductive health, especially for youth and the poor," but in 2011, it dedicated "just 0.2 percent of its $43 billion budget" to reproductive health projects, and much of that money was provided as loans, which can "leave poor countries indebted and threaten to divert domestic spending away from vital public health services," Elizabeth Arend, program coordinator at Gender Action, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

7 Mar 2012

South Africa announces initiative to test thousands of miners for TB

"South Africa wants to test hundreds of thousands of miners for tuberculosis [TB] and ensure sufferers get treatment over the next year," David Mametja, head of South African National Department of Health's TB program, said Tuesday at a workshop organized by the Stop TB Partnership, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

7 Mar 2012

Health system framework, patterns make change from within unlikely

The New York Times talks to Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University, about the cost control challenges presented by the health system. Meanwhile, the National Journal reports on how individual health care choices also help drive costs.

7 Mar 2012

Drugmakers paid out $8 billion in Medicare and Medicaid fraud fines in 10 years

The nation's largest drugmakers have paid at least $8 billion in fines for repeatedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid over the past decade, but they remain in business with the federal government because they are often the sole suppliers of critical products, records show.

7 Mar 2012

World achieves MDG for safe water years before target date

"Developing countries have already achieved their 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of drastically reducing the number of people without regular access to improved drinking water, though much of the credit lies with India and China," UNICEF and the WHO said in a joint report on Tuesday, Reuters reports

7 Mar 2012

Oregon seeks federal approval of 'coordinated care plan,' approves exchange bill

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is looking for federal approval of a recently signed law there that provides care for Medicaid patients through new "coordinated care organizations." The Oregon Legislature also approved a health insurance exchange bill before it adjourned.

7 Mar 2012

Mysterious kidney disease 'devastating' Central America's Pacific Coast, AP reports

The Associated Press/Seattle Times reports on a "mysterious epidemic that is devastating the Pacific Coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else."

7 Mar 2012

Simple recommendations help reduce environmental exposures for women

Remove your shoes at the door of your home to avoid tracking in pollutants. Decrease consumption of processed and canned foods. Avoid the use of plastics with recycling codes #3, #4 and #7. Don't use chemical tick and flea collars or dips for pets. Reproductive health care providers should share these tips and more scientific information with women who want to become pregnant or who are pregnant, but that does not always happen.

7 Mar 2012

U.S. Farm Bill has global implications for food security

In this ONE Blog post, Jennifer Wynn, an intern with ONE's policy team, reports on a recent panel discussion held at George Washington University that examined the U.S. Farm Bill and its implications for global hunger and food security.

7 Mar 2012

Yemen to launch measles vaccination campaign after increase in number of cases, deaths

"Measles has killed 126 children in Yemen since mid-2011, a consequence of the breakdown of basic health services during the year-long political crisis," and "in response ... , the Yemeni government has appealed for international assistance and an outbreak-response vaccination campaign will begin in the hardest-hit regions on 10 March," IRIN reports.

7 Mar 2012

Congress must protect international family planning funding

"Opponents of birth control don't just want to limit access in the U.S., they want to slash U.S. support for international family planning programs. It's a perennial debate, and it's about to start all over again," Chloe Cooney, director of global advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes in an RH Reality Check blog post.

7 Mar 2012

Despite controversy, report says young Catholic women support birth control use

According to the report by the Guttmacher Institute, these women perceive the recent debate surrounding contraception coverage as a political one. Meanwhile, analysis continues about Rush Limbaugh's comments on the subject.

7 Mar 2012