Healthcare News

RSS

NCHC Action Fund calls for redoubling efforts to enact comprehensive health system reform

The effort to fix our dysfunctional, inequitable and unsustainable health system is at a crucial juncture. Without prompt and decisive leadership, defeat, as it has for over a century, will again prevail over reform.

28 Jan 2010

Survey: Health care reform would lead to higher costs for employer-sponsored benefit programs

A significant majority of U.S. employers believe health care reform, if enacted, would lead to higher costs for both employer-sponsored benefit programs and health care services overall, according to initial results from an employer survey conducted by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health.

28 Jan 2010

Researchers urge for a national health trust for personal and public health

The United States has an inefficient and expensive health care system, but it could be improved with a new integrated health care system detailed in a new study in the American Journal of Public Health (February 2010 Vol. 100 No. 2).

28 Jan 2010

Health organizations urge Congress to protect Medicare beneficiaries' access to critical rehabilitative services

A coalition of organizations representing consumers, health professionals and providers recently sent a letter to Congressional Leadership, calling for the immediate reinstatement of the exceptions process for Medicare Part B outpatient therapy services. Without such efforts, thousands of Medicare beneficiaries will exceed arbitrary limitations on physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services.

28 Jan 2010

Also in global health news: Pakistan's farm land; PMTCT in Kenya; Burkina Faso's maternal health; health care access in Middle East

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Tuesday the country plans to sell farmland to foreign investors despite warnings by the U.N. that doing so could compromise farmers' rights, Reuters reports.

28 Jan 2010

Canada to 'champion' major G8 initiative to tackle maternal, child mortality

As president of the G8 in 2010, "Canada will champion a new G8 identity focused on ending child mortality and other health woes in poorer countries when it hosts the club of industrialized nations in June, the government said Tuesday," Agence France-Presse reports. A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained Tuesday that Harper will use his keynote address at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to provide more details about the new G8 agenda, according to AFP (1/26).

28 Jan 2010

Budgetary freeze will impact over 5M Americans afflicted with chronic viral hepatitis

Ms. Lorren Sandt, Chair of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) issued the following statement in advance of the President's State of the Union Address. NVHR is a coalition of more than 150 public, private, and voluntary organizations dedicated to reducing the incidence of infection, morbidity, and mortality from chronic viral hepatitis that afflicts more than 5 million Americans:

28 Jan 2010

Polls find Americans want Obama to focus more on economy, less on health care

As President Barack Obama prepares to give his State of the Union address this evening, new polls show public support for congressional health bills is low, with a majority wanting more focus on the economy instead.

28 Jan 2010

Pelosi on health reform: 'We will make every effort'

The Washington Post / Reuters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said today that abandoning health care reform was not a possibility. "'Let's put it this way. The present (healthcare) system is unsustainable. We can no longer afford it ... We will make every effort to have a health care bill. But we will make progress, whatever it is, one way or the other, we will go forward with that'" (Maler, 1/27).

28 Jan 2010

Obama's State of the Union address: LIVESTRONG CEO releases statement

Tonight, LIVESTRONG released the following statement from its President and CEO Doug Ulman, a three-time cancer survivor, regarding President Barack Obama's State of the Union address:

28 Jan 2010

State news: A doctor shortage in New Jersey, a plan to expand health care in Iowa and more

News outlets report on a health care expansion plan in Iowa, an outcry over a possible hospital deal in New York, the impending doctor shortage in New Jersey, and an increase in new HIV infections in Minnesota.

28 Jan 2010

Injured veterans' caregivers face emotional, financial pressures

Caregivers of severely injured veterans and their families face emotional and financial pressures and difficulty accessing military medical care. USA Today reports on the "thousands of unpaid caregivers — parents, spouses, siblings and war buddies — helping veterans injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars get through each day.

28 Jan 2010

Lawmakers voice opinions and search for ways forward on health overhaul

The Hill: "[Centrist] Democrats such as Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Max Baucus (Mont.) have approached [Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine,] within the past week to discuss her potential support for various healthcare proposals." Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who caucuses with the Democrats, has also broached the topic with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, another moderate Republican, who "said she would consider supporting a scaled-back version of the health legislation," (Bolton, 1/26).

27 Jan 2010

Uninsured residents of Hartford area in need of medical attention should register for free health clinic

Uninsured residents of the Hartford area in need of medical attention should call 877-233-5159 toll-free as soon as possible to schedule appointments for a free health clinic at the Connecticut Convention Center on Feb. 3.

27 Jan 2010

House Democrats meet, weigh reform's reconciliation option

The Wall Street Journal / Dow Jones reports on a meeting of House Democrats on the health overhaul Tuesday night. Some Democrats have suggested that the House adopt the bill passed by the Senate in December and then have the House and Senate modify that bill through a cumbersome budget process called reconciliation. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said earlier in the day that he was confident Democrats could pass a health overhaul that way. But other members are reluctant.

27 Jan 2010

Obama to Congress: 'Don't walk away' from health reform

The Associated Press: "His health care remake near collapse, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored lawmakers not to abandon a historic opportunity even as he accepted part of the blame for failing to sell the complex plan to average Americans ... Obama defended his ambitious proposal, saying it would protect most Americans from being rejected for insurance if they get sick, preserve choice of doctors, bring down the federal deficit and provide affordable coverage for millions now uninsured" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/27).

27 Jan 2010

Two former LA Medical Center owners to pay $10 million in Medicare fraud case

"The two former owners of City of Angels Medical Center will pay $10 million as part of a consent judgment over allegations that they performed unnecessary medical work on homeless people recruited from skid row shelters as part of a Medicare fraud scheme." Authorities alleged that the center would charge the government for the treatments (Grad, 1/26).

27 Jan 2010