Labor News and Research

RSS

Prescription drug prices for U.S. residents ages 50 and older increased at about twice inflation rate

Manufacturers' prices for the 193 prescription drugs most commonly used by U.S. residents ages 50 and older increased at about twice the rate of inflation in 2006, according to an annual report released on Tuesday by AARP, Cox/Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

8 Mar 2007

Baucus to draft new legislation that would allow small business health insurance pools

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is working on new legislation that would permit small businesses to jointly negotiate health plan rates and also give them tax incentives for offering employees coverage, according to a Democratic aide to the committee, CongressDaily reports.

8 Mar 2007

Spitzer says $575 million budget surplus might go toward health care, reserves

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) during a news conference on Monday said that some of the additional $575 million in state revenue expected next year likely will be spent on health care and placed in reserves, the Albany Times-Union reports.

8 Mar 2007

Teens at school short changed on training and safety in the workplace

According to researchers in the U.S. teenagers working part-time in retail and service jobs during the school year, do an average of 16 hours a week, often at jobs that are dangerous and unsupervised.

6 Mar 2007

China recruits foreign companies, community-based groups, trade unions to join fight against HIV/AIDS

Chinese officials have begun enlisting international companies, community-based organizations and trade unions to join the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country, the Los Angeles Times reports.

5 Mar 2007

Preemie lung treatments turn out to be safe

Preemies between 28 and 32 weeks are not harmed by a treatment no longer used to help their lungs mature before birth, according to findings of a study in this month's Pediatrics.

5 Mar 2007

Arkansas House Panel endorses bill requiring inmates to receive HIV test before release

The Arkansas House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Thursday endorsed an amended version of a bill (HB 1444) that would require inmates in the state's prisons to receive an HIV test before their release, the Arkansas News Bureau reports.

27 Feb 2007

Alaska Medicare beneficiaries have trouble finding primary care physicians

Alaska Medicare beneficiaries experience greater difficulty than beneficiaries in other states in finding primary care physicians, and "evidence indicates" the problem is "worsening" amid a growing physician shortage and low federal reimbursements rates, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

25 Feb 2007

Cyprus considers social welfare measures to offset declining fertility rate

Cyprus Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Antonis Vassiliou on Thursday announced the government is creating a series social welfare measures that might include paying couples who have three or more children $45,351 in an attempt to reverse the country's declining population, Agence France-Presse reports.

22 Feb 2007

Health Corps response to hurricanes inadequate

The more than 2,100 officers in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who were deployed to the Gulf Coast to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September 2005 lacked adequate training, and the federal response to the hurricanes did not include an adequate number of nurses, dentists and mental health professionals, according to a report recently compiled by the HHS Office of Inspector General, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.

21 Feb 2007

Senate HELP committee passes mental health legislation

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday voted 18-3 to approve a bill (S 558) sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) that would require health insurers to provide the same level of coverage for treatment of mental illnesses and substance abuse as they provide for physical illnesses, CQ Today reports.

19 Feb 2007

Millions to benefit from mental health insurance

New legislation in the United States will mean that health insurance companies will have to offer mental health coverage on a par with financial and treatment coverage offered for other physical illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes or asthma.

18 Feb 2007

Papua New Guinea should boost HIV prevention efforts

More than one-third of the adult population in Papua New Guinea could die of AIDS-related causes within 20 years if the spread of HIV is not controlled in the country, according to a report released Thursday by the Australian Centre for Independent Studies, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

12 Feb 2007

Politicians increasingly addressing health care reform, universal coverage, including 2008 Presidential contenders

The Dallas Morning News on Thursday examined how "[a]fter a decade of relative silence, politicians are again broaching the issue of universal health care."

12 Feb 2007

Congress likely to approve FDA prescription drug safety reforms in 2007

The Baltimore Sun on Friday examined how Democrats' takeover of Congress and the expiration of a law that requires drug manufacturers to pay user fees to FDA "is driving a flurry of activity that could lead to major changes" in the agency's drug safety policies.

12 Feb 2007

High-dose progesterone treatment helps at-risk pregnant women avoid premature delivery

In this study, 45 women who experienced premature labor (before 37 weeks gestation) were randomly divided into treatment and observation groups. The treatment group received twice-weekly 341-mg doses of progesterone until week 36.

11 Feb 2007

Senate HELP Committee likely to pass mental health parity bill

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee likely will pass legislation that would require health insurance companies to cover mental illnesses at the same level as they cover physical illnesses, committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, CQ HealthBeat reports.

7 Feb 2007

China aims to raise public awareness of HIV prevention

The program -- funded by U.S. Department of Labor -- aims to raise public awareness of HIV prevention, protect employment rights of people living with the disease, and reduce stigma and discrimination in the workplace (Xinhua/People's Daily, 1/26).

30 Jan 2007

Giving birth to a child naturally increases risk of hemorrhage in newborns

The first researchers to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the brains of a large group of babies soon after birth found a small amount of bleeding in and around the brains of one in four babies who were delivered vaginally.

30 Jan 2007

Bush promotes health care proposals

Initiatives that encourage U.S. residents to purchase health insurance through the private insurance market are the best way to expand coverage and reduce health care costs, President Bush said Thursday while visiting a Missouri hospital to promote the health care proposals he outlined earlier this week in his State of the Union address, the Washington Post reports

28 Jan 2007