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Blagojevich proposes health coverage expansion

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) on Sunday unveiled a plan to expand access to health insurance to the 1.4 million uninsured state residents at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion per year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

8 Mar 2007

Giuliani does not mention abortion rights at Conservative conference

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., "position[ed] themselves as allies" to conservatives despite their "mixed" records on issues such as abortion rights and stem cell research, the Los Angeles Times reports.

5 Mar 2007

Indiana House rejects cigarette tax increase to fund health care coverage

The Indiana House on Tuesday voted 52-44 against a bill (HB 1008) that would have raised the state's cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack to fund health coverage for low-income, uninsured residents, the Evansville Courier & Press reports.

4 Mar 2007

Drug-enriched salt could prevent elephantiasis

Though little known outside the developing world, the disease called lymphatic filariasis wreaks havoc on millions of people by causing their limbs and genitals to fill with fluid and swell monstrously - the symptom commonly known as elephantiasis.

1 Mar 2007

Lawmakers discuss plans for SCHIP reauthorization

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Monday at a forum co-sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said that Congress likely will have the ability to authorize the $50 billion over five years needed to enroll all children eligible for SCHIP but "hedged on whether it would do so this year or over the next several years," CQ HealthBeat reports.

28 Feb 2007

Enrollment in Medicaid, other public programs increases after enactment of 1996 welfare reform law

The number of U.S. residents who receive cash payments from welfare has decreased since the enactment of a reform law in 1996, but enrollment in other public programs for low-income residents, such as Medicaid, has increased over the same period, according to a recent analysis by the Associated Press, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports.

27 Feb 2007

Governors criticize provisions on SCHIP in fiscal year 2008 budget request from President Bush

A bipartisan group of governors at the National Governors Association winter meeting on Sunday asked Congress to provide $765 million in supplemental funds for SCHIP, the Bergen Record reports (Jackson, Bergen Record, 2/26).

27 Feb 2007

U.S. should establish initiative to mobilize health workers to countries affected by HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is "essentially the black death of the 21st century, killing on a massive scale and threatening to cripple economies and topple governments," Fitzhugh Mullan of George Washington University's Department of Health Policy writes in a commentary in the Feb. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

21 Feb 2007

Lawmakers announces proposal to extend health insurance to more children

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) on Friday announced a proposal that would extend health insurance to an additional nine million U.S. children, the Chicago Tribune reports

21 Feb 2007

Rwanda plans legislation that would limit couples to no more than three children

Rwandan lawmakers are drafting legislation that would limit couples to no more than three children to control the country's population growth and prevent poverty levels from increasing, Francois Sekamondo of Rwanda's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said on Wednesday, Reuters South Africa reports.

19 Feb 2007

Is too much being spent on HIV?

Billions of pounds are being spent on the fight against AIDS in developing countries. In this week's British Medical Journal, two experts go head to head over whether we are spending too much.

18 Feb 2007

Response to "The HIV/AIDS Crisis in Papua New Guinea"

The report titled The HIV/AIDS Crisis in Papua New Guinea by Miranda Darling Tobias which was released on 8 February by The Centre for Independent Studies is conceptually and methodologically problematic in its analysis of the impact of the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

14 Feb 2007

Groups call on G8 to deliver on 2005 promises made for Africa

Some HIV/AIDS advocacy groups last week called on finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations, meeting on Friday in Germany, to fulfill commitments made by the Group of Eight industrialized nations at its 2005 summit regarding aid to Africa, including HIV/AIDS funding, South Africa's Star reports.

13 Feb 2007

Obama presents system of universal health care coverage

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Saturday officially announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech in Illinois, the Washington Post reports.

13 Feb 2007

Maryland lawmakers propose cigarette tax increase to fund health care programs

Maryland House leaders on Wednesday proposed a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase to extend health insurance coverage to at least 250,000 uninsured state residents, the Washington Post reports.

12 Feb 2007

Most of Medicare and Medicaid savings in Bush's budget proposal come from reducing growth in Medicare provider payments

The "lion's share" of the Medicare and Medicaid savings over five years proposed in President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget proposal comes from limits on annual inflation adjustments for reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers for Medicare, amounting to $39.5 billion, CQ HealthBeat reports.

7 Feb 2007

Fighting hunger in Africa

852 million people worldwide are suffering from hunger or malnutrition, 18 million more than in 1995-1997 (FAO, 2004).

6 Feb 2007

Severely mentally ill have increased risk of death from coronary heart disease and stroke

A large British study indicates that individuals with severe mental illnesses are significantly more likely to die from coronary heart disease and stroke, but not cancer, than those without mental illnesses, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

6 Feb 2007

Money cannot buy you happiness

The most important sources of happiness are good health and freedom from financial worries, Professor Vani Borooah found.

29 Jan 2007

Greater Boston Interfaith Organization urges delay in penalties against uninsured

The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization on Wednesday asked state officials to delay for one year a provision of the Massachusetts health insurance law that will penalize residents who do not obtain insurance by July 1, the Boston Globe reports.

29 Jan 2007