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White House budget director stumbles on question about mandate

The health law's individual mandate is not a tax, the OMB director said under questioning at a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday, even though the administration has claimed the opposite in its defense of the law before the Supreme Court.

17 Feb 2012

President Obama's FY13 budget request increases multilateral global health funding

In this post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at CGD, and Denizhan Duran, a research assistant at CGD, note that while the decreases in funding for the Global Health Initiative (GHI) and PEPFAR in President Obama's FY 2013 budget request are "alarming," the "bright spot" is that multilateral programs, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance, would get increases in their funding.

17 Feb 2012

Web-based intervention can effectively manage chronic migraine

painACTION.com is a free, non-promotional online program designed to support self-management and improve overall function in people with chronic pain. This study tested painACTION.com's ability to increase the use of self-management skills in people with chronic migraine headaches.

17 Feb 2012

Bill to bar synthetic recreational drugs hits roadblock

A broadly popular bill by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to outlaw synthetic recreational drugs across the nation has run into an increasingly common obstacle in the U.S. Senate: the objection of a single senator. Klobuchar and two other senators backing similar measures took the unusual step of taking to the Senate floor Wednesday to publicly denounce a "hold" placed on their bills by freshman Kentucky Republican Rand Paul. ... Paul spokeswoman Moira Bagley said he believes "law enforcement of most drug laws can and should be local and state issues."

17 Feb 2012

Canadian study quantifies effects of safe water, sanitation on health for first time

"In a study of 193 countries to be released Thursday, Canadian-based researchers say they've been able to quantify -- for the first time -- how safe water and public sanitation efforts affect health when factoring out other variables such as a nation's wealth, fertility or location," USA Today's "Your Life" reports.

17 Feb 2012

Home health industry fights minimum wage rule

USA Today reports about the effort by home health care companies fighting an administration proposal on pay. Meanwhile in Connecticut, officials are considering changes in pay rules.

17 Feb 2012

Shortage looming, drug maker agrees to release emergency supplies of kids' cancer drug

A shortage of a drug used to treat children's cancer seems to have been averted for a time as the Food and Drug Administration says it reached an agreement with the drug supplier to release emergency supplies. Elsewhere, rules sometimes force hospitals to throw away scarce drugs.

17 Feb 2012

Birth control rule will apply to self-insured groups, Sebelius says; Political fallout continues

The revised rule on insurance coverage of birth control that HHS will formulate, finalize and implement by August 2013 will apply to self-insured entities, as well as policies issued by insurance companies, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters. The details of the revised birth-control rule - announced after a furor from Catholic employers who object to funding something to which they are morally opposed - remain undefined, except that it will require insurance companies to pay for the drugs instead of religious employers.

17 Feb 2012

Iowa, Ga. legislatures consider anti-abortion bills

Iowa lawmakers consider banning all abortions while Georgia is weighing banning health insurers from covering the procedure.

17 Feb 2012

Burkina Faso government urged to increase health budget as country faces ARV stock outs

"Burkina Faso's Network for Access to Essential Medicines (RAME) has called on the Burkinabè government to increase the budget allocation to the health sector to avoid interruptions to AIDS treatment," Inter Press Service reports.

17 Feb 2012

Russian NGOs fear fate of HIV harm-reduction programs as planned exit of Global Fund occurs

The Moscow Times examines a potential shift in Russia's public health priorities as programs funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria begin to phase out.

17 Feb 2012

WHO should regulate alcohol consumption with legally binding convention, global health expert says

The "WHO should regulate alcohol at the global level, enforcing such regulations as a minimum drinking age, zero-tolerance drunken driving, and bans on unlimited drink specials," Devi Sridhar, a lecturer in global health politics at the University of Oxford, argues in a commentary published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, Scientific American reports.

17 Feb 2012

Sebelius: Exchanges will strengthen employer health coverage

The health and human services secretary told Senate Finance Committee members she expects health insurance exchanges to give employers another option to provide coverage to workers. In the meantime, HHS is touting newly covered preventive services it says 86 million Americans have used.

17 Feb 2012

Longer looks: GOP contraceptive amendment could have wider effect; The love of caregiving

In their latest move in the battle over contraception coverage, top Republicans in Congress are going for broke: They're now pushing a bill that would allow employers and insurance companies to pick and choose which health benefits to provide based simply on executives' personal moral beliefs. ... Last week, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offered a "conscience amendment," to the law, pitching it as a way to allay religious employers' qualms about providing birth control to their employees.

17 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Contraception conscience vs. political objections; Is the mandate the 'non-tax' tax?

The president's new birth control plan would insure coverage of women's birth control without copayments or deductibles. Sounds fair, especially given that men's anti-impotence Viagra treatments have been covered by insurance plans for years.

17 Feb 2012

State roundup: Settlements for mental health facilities lawsuits; Minn., Oregon insurers face scrutiny

But the survey underway in Prince George's County is intended to address a complex problem. Officials expect the data to give them a detailed look at the state of health and health care in the county, where conditions such as diabetes and heart disease are much more common than in the rest of the region and most of the state.

17 Feb 2012

Contraception battle flares on two fronts

Two female Democrats walked out of a House oversight committee hearing on the contraceptive coverage rule Thursday morning, accusing Chairman Darrell Issa of manipulating committee rules to block female witnesses from testifying. "What I want to know is, where are the women?" asked Rep. Carolyn Maloney before walking out. "I look at this panel of witnesses, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning."

17 Feb 2012

Eliminating key part of health care reform would lower number of Americans newly insured

A new RAND Corporation study concludes that eliminating a key part of health care reform that requires all Americans to have health insurance would sharply lower the number of people gaining coverage, but would not dramatically increase the cost of buying policies through new insurance exchanges.

17 Feb 2012

Clinton to announce 5-year initiative to cut pollutants; Program could have positive public health impact

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is set to announce on Thursday morning a five-year initiative among the U.S. and five other countries -- Canada, Sweden, Mexico, Ghana and Bangladesh -- to cut pollutants that contribute to global warming, the Washington Post reports.

17 Feb 2012

U.N. meeting delegates urge international community to respond thoroughly, rapidly to drought-stricken Sahel

"Delegates at a meeting convened by the United Nations to draw up strategies to respond to the humanitarian crisis in West Africa's drought-prone Sahel region on Wednesday called for comprehensive and rapid assistance to the millions of people affected, especially children and women," the U.N. News Centre reports.

17 Feb 2012

Health Care News and Research

White House budget director stumbles on question about mandate

President Obama's FY13 budget request increases multilateral global health funding

Web-based intervention can effectively manage chronic migraine

Bill to bar synthetic recreational drugs hits roadblock

Canadian study quantifies effects of safe water, sanitation on health for first time

Home health industry fights minimum wage rule

Shortage looming, drug maker agrees to release emergency supplies of kids' cancer drug

Birth control rule will apply to self-insured groups, Sebelius says; Political fallout continues

Iowa, Ga. legislatures consider anti-abortion bills

Burkina Faso government urged to increase health budget as country faces ARV stock outs

Russian NGOs fear fate of HIV harm-reduction programs as planned exit of Global Fund occurs

WHO should regulate alcohol consumption with legally binding convention, global health expert says

Sebelius: Exchanges will strengthen employer health coverage

Longer looks: GOP contraceptive amendment could have wider effect; The love of caregiving

Viewpoints: Contraception conscience vs. political objections; Is the mandate the 'non-tax' tax?

State roundup: Settlements for mental health facilities lawsuits; Minn., Oregon insurers face scrutiny

Contraception battle flares on two fronts

Eliminating key part of health care reform would lower number of Americans newly insured

Clinton to announce 5-year initiative to cut pollutants; Program could have positive public health impact

U.N. meeting delegates urge international community to respond thoroughly, rapidly to drought-stricken Sahel

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