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Dodd: Health reform bill lacks detail

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Tuesday morning that the most contentious issues in health care reform such as a public plan and employer mandate will be left out of a bill for now, Politico reports.

9 Jun 2009

Baucus: Comparative effectiveness will be in health reform bill

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., says that a comprehensive health reform package - due out from his committee within the next week or two - will include plans to compare the effectiveness of drugs and other medical treatments so Americans can answer the question: "What are we getting for our money?"

9 Jun 2009

House Democrats unveil reform outline

CQ reports that details are emerging regarding House Democrats' Plan. "The health care overhaul under development by House Democrats would subsidize insurance premiums for families earning as much as four times the poverty level, while expanding Medicaid and improving its payments to health providers."

9 Jun 2009

DeParle, Sebelius: Time to tackle health care disparities

Officials said Tuesday that the time is now to tackle ethnic, economic and gender disparities in health care as they ready a major overhaul of the nation's health care system.

9 Jun 2009

War of words on health reform

The message war on health care continues unabated. A new memo by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and the Herndon Alliance, a liberal group that backs a sweeping health care overhaul, urges advocates to emphasize that Democratic plans offer "an American solution" that will provide "peace of mind" and "choice" of insurance plans and physicians.

9 Jun 2009

WHO, UNICEF say vitamin A, deworming interventions safe, in response to alleged deaths, sickness in Bangladesh

The WHO and UNICEF on Tuesday said that vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets are safe, after two deaths and the "sickness of hundreds" were alleged among the children who received the interventions during a nationwide campaign in Bangladesh, Bernama.com reports (Bernama.com, 6/9).

9 Jun 2009

New York Times examines varying definitions of 'pandemic'

"The new swine influenza virus [H1N1], which appeared suddenly after years of warning about a potential pandemic of avian influenza, upset the WHO's assumptions that most people have the same understanding of the word pandemic," says the New York Times in a report that examines the difficultly health experts have had when attempting to agree upon what constitutes a pandemic.

9 Jun 2009

Study finds conflict-affected countries receive less money for reproductive health

A recent study found developing countries affected by war receive less money for reproductive health than other developing nations, despite having acute needs, Reuters reports.

9 Jun 2009

AP/Washington Post examines experimental malaria vaccine, mutant mosquitoes to combat malaria

During the 1990s, Sanaria CEO Stephen Hoffman "irradiated malaria-carrying mosquitoes to weaken the parasites inside them, and he and 13 colleagues subjected themselves to more than 1,000 bites," according to the AP/Washington Post.

9 Jun 2009

Indian Government delays implementation of ruling for graphic images to appear on tobacco products

Despite a recent ruling by India's Supreme Court that all tobacco products must have pictorial warnings by May 31, one week after the ruling was to go into effect, the warning labels have yet to appear on packaging, the National reports.

9 Jun 2009

Times of Zambia/allAfrica.com examines maternal mortality

The Times of Zambia/allAfrica.com examines abortion in Zambia and efforts to reduce maternal mortality. "Unsafe abortions are one of the top five causes of maternal mortality in Zambia," writes the newspaper, which adds they are one factor keeping the country from meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goal target of reducing maternal mortality.

9 Jun 2009

Opinion: Second-line ARVs in India; PEPFAR funding

The successful scale-up of services for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in India "is now at risk," write Loon Gangte, president of the Delhi Network of Positive People, and Leena Menghaney, projects manager in India for Medecins Sans Frontieres' Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, in a livemint.com editorial.

9 Jun 2009

Obama ramping up efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system

President Barack Obama is ramping up his efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system, including devoting his Saturday radio and video address to health reform.

9 Jun 2009

How Congress might tax your health benefits

If you work at a company that reimburses employees for joining a gym, you pay income taxes on the value of that perk. If you get life insurance through work, there's a good chance that you pay taxes on a portion.

9 Jun 2009

Doctors and hospitals look for ways to cut costs, improve quality

The "patient-centered" practices movement is growing in popularity, the New York Times reports. Primary care physicians in the practices "spend more time with patients, emphasize prevention and education" to keep patients healthy and "can handle many medical problems without referrals to specialists." Often, "this kind of care can reduce a patient's medical bills."

9 Jun 2009

Comparative effectiveness tested in diabetes study, VA records release

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine has found common surgical interventions and stents, the expensive medical devices used in bypass surgeries, are no more effective at preventing death, heart attacks and strokes in diabetic patients than less expensive drugs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The study, which included 2,368 patients, is representative of new interest in head-to-head comparisons of treatments.

9 Jun 2009