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How much health care for $1 trillion?

USA Today asks what the additional $1 trillion cost of a health care overhaul (over 10 years) will actually buy. "Although the eye-popping price tag would help boost insurance coverage to 95% or more of the public, it's not enough to do everything advocates initially want.

15 Jul 2009

Women veterans don't always get privacy at VA clinics

Veterans Affairs hospitals and outpatient clinics under review are not always complying fully with federal privacy requirements, often exposing women when they bathe or receive exams, according to government auditors, The Associated Press reports.

15 Jul 2009

J & J: hospital deal will hurt medical device sales

The CFO for Johnson & Johnson's said President Obama's deal with hospitals to cut Medicare costs will reduce the sales of medical devices, Bloomberg reports: "Hospitals buy medical devices, including J&J’s artificial hips and stents to prop open clogged arteries, directly from the manufacturer, (Johnson and Johnson CFO Dominic) Caruso said today in an interview with Bloomberg News.

15 Jul 2009

Massachusetts' budget forces retreat from universal coverage

"The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system," the New York Times reports.

15 Jul 2009

Bio manufacturers poised to follow Senate victory with house win

"A veteran California lawmaker with ties to the biotechnology industry said she thinks her proposal to protect brand-name biologic makers has enough support to carry in the House Energy and Commerce Committee," Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal reports.

15 Jul 2009

Iowa lawmakers discuss reform and increased coverage for children

An overhaul of the U.S. health care system would probably help maintain improvements already made in Iowa, Gov. Chet Culver and other health advocates said Tuesday, according to the Des Moines Register.

15 Jul 2009

Minnesota delegation wary of proposed health care reform

"Here's a little secret you might not know about the health care reform being debated in Washington: Minnesota might not want it," Minnesota Public Radio reports.

15 Jul 2009

Medicare fraud taints California device maker and New Jersey clinic

A California device maker settles a Medicare fraud case while a New Jersey doctor and his office manager are accused in a Medicare fraud scheme.

15 Jul 2009

NPR examines Obama's 'broad' global health strategy; maternal health in Afghanistan discussed at congressional briefing

NPR reports on President Obama's "broad global health strategy," which would increase the amount of funding for family planning, maternal and child health programs to about a "half billion dollars" next year. According to NPR, "the U.S. has committed $230 million [over the next five years] directly to health in Afghanistan, whose government has already built 2,000 health facilities since the collapse of the Taliban regime" (Wilson, 7/15).

15 Jul 2009

GlaxoSmithKline pledges $97 million investment in AIDS drugs for Africa, allows South African drugmaker to produce generic second-line treatment

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on Tuesday announced plans to invest $97 million over 10 years "to improve research, development and access to AIDS drugs in Africa," Reuters reports.

15 Jul 2009

Review of Brazil's HIV/AIDS treatment programs shows importance of generic drugs, researchers say

"Brazil has been successful in its nearly 20-year effort to treat people living with" HIV/AIDS, and generic medicines have been "a large part of the solution," according to a recent Health Affairs review, UPI reports (UPI, 7/14).

15 Jul 2009

Prevalence of artemisinin monotherapies raising risk of resistence

Almost half of all artemisinin manufacturers and malaria-endemic countries are "failing to comply" with WHO requirements to sell the treatment in combination with other drugs, which is increasing the risk that malaria parasites will develop resistance to artemsinin, Nature reports.

15 Jul 2009

Uninsured account for 20% of U.S. ER visits

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released new data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample -- the largest, all-payer emergency department database in the United States.

15 Jul 2009

New research tool – map of genomic variation for diagnosing and identifying genetic problems

Genetics researchers have unveiled a powerful new resource for scientists and health providers studying human illnesses -- a reference standard of deletions and duplications of DNA found in the human genome. Drawn from over 2,000 healthy persons, the study provides one of the deepest and broadest sets of copy number variations (CNVs) available to date, along with a new research tool for diagnosing and identifying genetic problems in patients.

15 Jul 2009

'Unstoppable Swine flu' and how to deal with it

Health authorities worldwide are preparing for what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed the 'unstoppable' spread of the new A/H1N1 virus (swine flu) for which Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, says a vaccine will not be available for several months to come.

15 Jul 2009

KHN's Eric Pianin discusses the House health overhaul bill

House Democrats released their health care reform bill called "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009." Kaiser Health News Correspondent Eric Pianin discussed the bill with Jackie Judd.

15 Jul 2009

House Democrats unveil 1,000 page health bill, complete with surtaxes on wealthy

"House Democrats unveiled ambitious legislation Tuesday to remake the nation's health care system and called on medical providers, businesses and the wealthiest Americans to pick up the tab for President Barack Obama's top domestic priority," the Associated Press reports.

15 Jul 2009

Details emerge as House Democrats plan to release health bill

"House Democrats are preparing on Tuesday afternoon to unveil a full draft of their sweeping health care legislation, including an income surtax on the country's highest wage-earners to help pay the 10-year, roughly $1 trillion cost of the measure," the New York Times reports.

15 Jul 2009

Senate Finance Committee under pressure to produce health bill

President Obama told Sen. Max Baucus that he wants a Senate Finance Committee health overhaul bill by the end of the week, The Associated Press reports. "These officials said Obama made his wishes known directly to Baucus, D-Mont., at a White House meeting Monday attended by administration officials and senior Democratic lawmakers."

15 Jul 2009

House Democrats to unveil health care bill details

"After a series of false starts, House Democrats are finally expected to unveil the details of a sweeping reform measure on Tuesday that would drastically revamp the country's health care system," Politico reports.

15 Jul 2009