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Minn. House approves abortion restrictions

After long, wrenching, debates with sometimes-graphic testimony about fetuses, the House approved bills Friday that would ban all abortions in Minnesota after 20 weeks of gestation and prohibit public money from paying for the procedure. The 20-week ban was approved, largely along party lines in the Republican-led chamber, 82-46.

9 May 2011

First Edition: May 9, 2011

"It sounds like a new Apple product, but IPAB is actually a controversial board at the heart of a highly charged battle over Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and disabled".

9 May 2011

Abortion bills move to governors in Texas and Florida

House lawmakers have sent the controversial abortion sonogram bill to the governor's desk — after a last-ditch effort by disability rights advocates to change language they called highly offensive.

7 May 2011

House passes restrictive abortion measure, includes limits on insurance policies that cover abortions

In other House action, the chamber also approved another bill related to stripping funds from the health law. This one targeted money for a program in last year's health care law providing for construction of school-based health clinics.

6 May 2011

Longer looks: States creating health compacts; IPAB under fire; is GOP redefining rape?

In late April, Colorado and Oklahoma became the latest states to vote on whether to join an interstate agreement with like-minded legislatures to put health care decisions more firmly into the hands of state governments.

6 May 2011

Bills to tighten abortion regulations advance in Texas, La.

As Texas senators gave final approval Tuesday to a bill requiring doctors to conduct sonograms before performing abortions, moving it closer to the governor's desk, a new fight is ramping up over another abortion-related bill.

6 May 2011

Viewpoints: Gov. Daniels's reversal?; IPAB's Medicare fix; Texas Medicaid cuts

Centrist Republicans loved it when began urging the party to keep its eye on the deficit-reduction prize and stop obsessing about social issues. ... He then went home and announced that he would sign a bill to strip Planned Parenthood of Medicaid financing. ... Daniels's moderate fans thought abortion was precisely the issue he was calling on Republicans to set aside. Right now, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives can barely talk about anything else.

6 May 2011

First Edition: May 5, 2011

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jessica Marcy recently spoke with Dan Hawkins, the association's senior vice president, about the future and finances of community health centers and their evolving budgets.

5 May 2011

States are battlegrounds for Planned Parenthood funding, abortion issues

Speaker John Boehner has thus far refused to make social issues central in his agenda, focusing instead on spending and the debt. But the House today will briefly wade into the social wars of the 1990s, bringing up a controversial anti-abortion bill. The measure, which is expected to pass, would prohibit federal funding for abortions and create new controls on private companies that offer insurance plans that cover abortions.

5 May 2011

Roundup: Mass. officials wrestle with municipal health care issues

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says he and legislative leaders are in fundamental agreement over what should be included in a municipal health care bill, even while there remains disagreement on the specifics. The House approved a measure last week that would largely strip public employee unions of collective bargaining rights over health care benefits. The Senate is expected to act in the coming weeks.

4 May 2011

State roundup: Assisted living hazards in Fla.; Ariz.'s Medicaid limits

Despite some efforts to ease the blow to pediatric health care providers, Texas' proposed budget cuts will most likely have a disproportionate effect on children's hospitals.

3 May 2011

Abortion-rights supporters face tough choices about where to focus efforts

News outlets also report on restrictive legislation advancing in the Florida and Kansas legislatures. Meanwhile, funding issues related to Planned Parenthood continue to receive attention.

30 Apr 2011

Ind. lawmakers vote to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funds

News outlets report that this step, which would make this state the first to cut off all government funding for Planned Parenthood, could put Gov. Mitch Daniels, a possible Republican presidential hopeful, in a difficult position.

29 Apr 2011

More women using ‘morning after’ pill

Figures have revealed that the rate of women using emergency contraception in 2006-08 more than doubled, compared with the rate in the previous four to six years, before the pills were approved for use without a prescription. This comes from a study from the Guttmacher Institute.

29 Apr 2011

Rwanda, QIAGEN and Merck launch comprehensive national cervical cancer prevention program

The Government of Rwanda, together with QIAGEN N.V. and Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced the launch, in Kigali, Rwanda, of a comprehensive national cervical cancer prevention program that includes vaccination with GARDASIL [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] for appropriate girls 12 to 15 years of age and modern molecular diagnostic screening for women between the ages of 35 and 45.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 25 Apr 2011

Global health experts discuss legislative landscape of 112th Congress at Kaiser Family Foundation panel

U.S. global health programs did relatively well in terms of funding in the FY11 budget, but global health policy experts participating in a panel discussion on Wednesday at the Kaiser Family Foundation acknowledged that challenges remain as Congress begins debate on the FY12 budget.

25 Apr 2011

Longer looks: Tommy Thompson on Medicare; Was WSJ Pulitzer undeserved?; IPAB and cost cutting

The law contains Medicare cuts, but the savings achieved are then used to pay for new federal spending, such as the Medicaid expansion and new subsidies to purchase health care in state-based exchanges.

22 Apr 2011

Political discourse regarding Planned Parenthood moves to states

Media outlets report on state-level action regarding Planned Parenthood and abortion issues.

22 Apr 2011

Viewpoints: Medicare cuts & partisan politics; Colorado health exchange; NEJM on family planning

The debate over Paul Ryan's Medicare reform ideas has largely been healthy, even amid the liberal distortions. But why has there been so little scrutiny of President Obama's new Medicare proposal? Anyone worrying about more individual choice and responsibility in health care might be interested to learn that the alternative is turning every one of these decisions over to a 15-member central committee.

22 Apr 2011

Roundup: Idaho Gov.'s exchange/health law decision; Calif. exchange board meets; Iowa mental health plan

Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter is no fan of the health care reform -- he was the first governor to sign legislation requiring his state to sue over President Obama's overhaul -- but said the bill state lawmakers passed in the 2011 session would have required Idaho to forego the creation of a state health insurance exchange.

22 Apr 2011