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First Edition: February 8, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about Marilyn Tavenner's nomination to run Medicare and the Catholic bishops' rejection of the Obama administration's contraception plan announced last week.

9 Feb 2013

Political cartoon: 'Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon?" By Matt Wuerker, Politico.

9 Feb 2013

Viewpoints: 'Empty budget gestures'; GOP should endorse 'doomsday' sequester; 'Imagined dangers' imperil vaccine successes

President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to put off -- again -- the start of the "sequester," a series of across-the-board spending cuts that would save $1.2 billion over 10 years.

9 Feb 2013

U.S. foreign aid is 'good value'

"Unfortunately, most Americans don't realize what a good value our foreign assistance efforts are," and "most would be surprised to learn that foreign aid amounts to only about one percent of the federal budget," Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece.

9 Feb 2013

Academic medical centers play an integral role in developing new treatments and cures

As an internationally recognized researcher into aging and dementia, Suzanne Craft is keenly aware of the importance of volunteers in clinical studies.

9 Feb 2013

Hoping for universal family planning by 2030

Dana Horvig, CEO of Marie Stopes International, writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that his hope is "that by 2030 we are finally living in the golden age of family planning ... in which everyone has access to whatever type of contraception they want, no matter where they live or what their circumstances are." He continues, "If we are to reach this golden age though, we must keep an ever watchful eye on results and impact, and make sure family planning services are available to the people who need them most."

9 Feb 2013

Measuring cost-effectiveness of new medical technologies

To decide whether a new medical technology is cost effective, researchers often "compare a new technology's incremental cost-effectiveness ratio or ICER to a threshold that is some multiple of a country or income group's GDP per capita, per WHO convention," Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the CGD's "Global Health Policy" blog

9 Feb 2013

Ongoing conflict aggravating health of Syrians, WHO warns

The WHO on Tuesday "warned that the ongoing conflict in Syria, which will soon enter its third year, will lead to a sharp spike in the number of people needing urgent aid, including food, clean water and vital medical services," the U.N. News Centre reports.

9 Feb 2013

Plans scaled back for vets' computerized health records system

The U.S. government is ditching ambitious plans to create a single computer system for troops and military veterans to track their health records, opting instead for a more modest, less costly plan that officials said will deliver on goals faster.

9 Feb 2013

Emphasis on 'How' missing from 'IF campaign' against global hunger

The "Enough Food for Everyone If" campaign (IF campaign), "supported by a coalition of more than 100 development organizations, has identified four priorities on aid, land, tax avoidance and market transparency," Zahid Torres-Rahman, founder of Business Fights Poverty, writes in the Guardian Sustainable Business blog.

9 Feb 2013

Medicaid expansion, health exchanges tempt some GOP governors

Politico reports that certain Republican governors are going forward with the implementation of these health law provisions without facing a backlash within their states.

9 Feb 2013

Conference attendees express concern over growing burden of NCDs

Inter Press Service reports on "a conference organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) on World Cancer Day [February 4] in Geneva," during which experts warned about the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) -- "cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, among others" -- especially in low- and middle-income countries.

7 Feb 2013

Uganda's childhood immunization programs face challenges, IRIN reports

"Inadequate funding, a shortage of health staff, and poor adherence to vaccination schedules are some of the reasons for declining immunization levels in Uganda, which experts say threatens efforts to reduce preventable deaths among children," IRIN reports.

7 Feb 2013

Study: Hospice use on the rise, but after late-stage aggressive care

A study released Tuesday found that, although the number of elderly people who died in a hospice setting is increasing, it usually came late in the process and after highly aggressive care near the end of life.

7 Feb 2013

Obama: 'I've offered sensible reforms to Medicare' (video)

This Kaiser Health News video excerpt features comments made by President Barack Obama during a statement to the press Tuesday in which he emphasized the need to reduce the cost of health care in the U.S.

7 Feb 2013

WFP resumes food aid delivery in Northern Mali amid NGO warnings of increasing need

"Communities in northern Mali are in need of humanitarian intervention following the recent military operations in Gao and Timbuktu, leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to call for deliveries of food aid, fuel and even currency notes," Inter Press Service reports.

7 Feb 2013

Society of Toxicology's 52nd Annual Meeting to be held from Mar. 10-16 in San Antonio

A group of 7,000 scientists working in multiple specialties, from more than 50 countries, will meet March 10-14, 2013 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, to share their latest findings on 60 topical issues of concern to human health and the environment.

7 Feb 2013

WHO, WIPO, WTO release book on intellectual property and access to medical technologies

"For the first time, the three global intergovernmental bodies dealing with health, intellectual property and trade have pooled their expertise on a study of policies needed to advance medical and health technologies and to ensure they reach the people who need them," a WHO press release states.

7 Feb 2013

Cantor calls for repeal of medical device tax; Bipartisan Senate bill seeks to end generic drug delays

In a speech, the House majority leader criticized the health law but focused his attention on the overhaul's taxes. Meanwhile, the Senate measure would prohibit companies that make brand-name drugs from paying generic manufacturers to keep their products off the market.

7 Feb 2013

Budget office report's info nugget: More employers than previously estimated will drop health coverage

About 7 million people, nearly double the earlier estimates, will no longer get health insurance from their employers because of changes to the tax code made by the health law, according to CBO projections.

7 Feb 2013