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Planned Parenthood funding, abortion and women's health issues create debate flashpoints

President Barack Obama pivoted from a question about women in the workplace to criticize GOP candidate Mitt Romney for his positions on contraceptive coverage, funding for Planned Parenthood, and abortion.

18 Oct 2012

How health care is playing up and down the ballot

The Medicare question is echoing from the top of the ticket into the Florida Senate race between Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and challenger Connie Mack.

18 Oct 2012

Social Security payments to rise 1.7% but higher Medicare premium may offset increase

The average senior will get about $21 more per month, but federal officials note that some of that will be needed to cover the increase in Medicare premiums, which will be announced next month.

18 Oct 2012

Hill staffers predict deal to prevent cuts to Medicare physician payments

At an event Tuesday, staffers from both sides of the aisle predicted that a "doc fix" agreement would be reached to prevent large scheduled cuts from kicking in.

18 Oct 2012

Health law regs moving slowly in advance of election

CQ HealthBeat reports that the Office of Management and Budget has no updates on its website for at least a half-dozen pending regulations related to insurance exchanges and essential benefits.

18 Oct 2012

Calif.'s top health care official says state could dump health plan for kids and maintain quality care

California's top health official said Tuesday that she thinks the state can end a health care program for low-income children without disrupting their care.

18 Oct 2012

Aging population's demand for care soars in Calif. while Oregon puts in place new long-term care insurance rules

News outlets report on the growing need for long-term care and offer insights into the home care workforce.

18 Oct 2012

Study: 3 in 10 kidney transplant patients require readmission to hospital within 30 days of discharge

Three in 10 patients receiving a kidney transplant require readmission to the hospital within 30 days of discharge following surgery, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis of six years of national data.

17 Oct 2012

NPR begins series on polio eradication

NPR's "Shots" blog on Monday began a series of stories "reporting on the fight to eradicate the last few pockets of polio," which begins "with a look back at how the U.S. and the rest of the world wiped out the virus for good."

17 Oct 2012

Blogs recognize Global Handwashing Day

The following blog posts were published in recognition of Global Handwashing Day, observed annually on October 15.

17 Oct 2012

Global Fund invites Myanmar to apply for additional funding

"Health workers in Myanmar are confident that efforts to narrow the country's huge gap between access to, and need for, life-saving medicines to treat HIV/AIDS are back on track after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria invited the country to apply for additional funding," IRIN reports.

17 Oct 2012

CGD introduces online forum to discuss Global Fund reforms

In the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a senior fellow at CGD, introduces the center's new online forum in which they "have asked prominent thinkers and practitioners what reforms the Global Fund should prioritize and how it should best fulfill its mandate of improving the way development aid is managed in addition to advancing the fight against the three diseases as its Board considers new policies and its new Executive Director prepares to takes office."

17 Oct 2012

Panelists discuss global health law, innovation, access, justice

Intellectual Property Watch reports on a roundtable on global health law, innovation, access and justice, hosted last week by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and Georgetown Law School.

17 Oct 2012

World must 'pull together' to end hunger, stunting among children

Noting "around 170 million children under the age of five are stunted" globally, actor and UNICEF ambassador Mia Farrow writes in a CNN opinion piece, "For too long, stunting has been a silent crisis -- a personal tragedy for each family," but "the suffering of some 170 million children constitutes a global catastrophe that calls for an urgent response." Traveling with UNICEF for more than a decade, Farrow says, "Wherever there is poverty, it is the children who pay the highest price."

17 Oct 2012

Prescription pain medication abuse on the rise among current generation of adolescents

A new study by the University of Colorado Denver reveals that today's adolescents are abusing prescription pain medications like vicodin, valium and oxycontin at a rate 40 percent higher than previous generations.

17 Oct 2012

Behind the campaign frenzy, big issues at stake in presidential election

Substantively, any agreement in Congress, which opens a week after the election, could define the terms for how Mr. Obama and lawmakers move next year on efforts to contain the long-term costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the programs that are driving forecasts of unsustainable debt. And it would determine how much money is available to address Mr. Obama's priorities like education, energy and health care through his term.

17 Oct 2012

High nurse workloads may affect postsurgical outcomes of older minorities

Older black patients are three times more likely than older white patients to suffer poorer outcomes after surgery, including death, when cared for by nurses with higher workloads, reports research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

17 Oct 2012

States officials wrestle with Medicaid expansion decisions, state reforms

Many are exploring whether expanding Medicaid eligibility under the health law would lead to savings or increased costs.

17 Oct 2012

Peace Corps, USAID, Coca-Cola Company announce WASH training initiative

"The Peace Corps has announced a strategic partnership with the Water and Development Alliance (WADA) -- a long-standing public-private partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) -- to improve local capacity to deliver sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for the reduction of waterborne disease around the world," a Peace Corps press release reports.

17 Oct 2012

Study: Premium support plan could raise seniors' costs in many areas of country

A Kaiser Family Foundation study released Monday found that almost six in 10 Medicare beneficiaries would pay higher premiums under a hypothetical privatized system similar to that proposed by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

17 Oct 2012