Policy/Government News
U.S. grants $28.8 million to community health centers
08/09/2011
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08/09/2011 The Obama administration said it will spend $28.8 million on grants to create new community health center sites in 23 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.
The grants, announced on Tuesday, are part of $11 billion promised for new and existing health care centers over the next five years. The money, which was promised in last year's law which overhauled the U.S. healthcare system, is intended to help pay for new sites where people can get medical services regardless of their ability to pay.
Such healthcare centers serve 19.5 million patients, about 40 percent of whom have no health insurance.
Medicare prescription drug premiums to fall
08/04/2011
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08/04/2011 By Andrew Seaman
Medicare participants enrolled in the health insurance program's prescription drug benefit should see their premium cost decline slightly next year.
The Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday the average monthly premium for Medicare Part D will be about $30 a month, down from $30.76 in 2011.
HHS officials attributed the decrease to increased competition and greater use of cheaper generic drugs.
Expanding Medicaid will cost states billions: study
03/03/2011
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03/03/2011 By Lisa Lambert and Donna Smith
The costs to U.S. states of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor will grow by hundreds of billions of dollars under the healthcare law passed last year, according to a report released by Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday.
"This law, because of Medicaid expansions, has put a strain on state budgets," Senator Orrin Hatch, one of the report's sponsors, told a meeting of hospital administrators on Tuesday. "Medicaid expansions threaten to bankrupt the states."
Republican governors take on insurance exchanges
02/07/2011
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02/07/2011 By Lisa Lambert
As Republican governors take on the U.S. healthcare reform law in courts, they are also challenging it on the administrative side, with 21 registering their discontent for insurance exchanges in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday.
The reform act, which President Barack Obama signed into law last March, "is seriously flawed, favors dependency over personal responsibility, and will ultimately destroy the private insurance market," the governors wrote in the letter.
Obama offers strong defense of healthcare law
01/28/2011
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01/28/2011 By Noam N. Levey
President Obama tells consumer advocates in Washington that he is 'not open to efforts that will take this law apart.' But he does say he's willing to 'tweak' the healthcare law to make it better.
Reporting from Washington — Speaking to a conference of consumer advocates in Washington, President Obama on Friday delivered a spirited defense of the healthcare law he signed last year and urged supporters of the landmark legislation to continue working to implement it.
Changes Brewing at the FDA for Orphan Drugs
09/14/2010
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09/14/2010 By Ritu S. Baral
There is a new initiative under way to revamp the way FDA approaches orphan drug development that goes above and beyond the 1983 Orphan Drug Act. The 2010 Brownback/Brown amendment was created as a market-based approach to address rare and neglected diseases by incentivizing biotech and pharmaceuticals companies to invest in drugs for these conditions.
U.S. tries to fix slow response to outbreaks
08/19/2010
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08/19/2010 By Maggie Fox
The U.S. government proposed major changes on Thursday to the way it works with companies to fight new disease threats such as flu, including reform at the Food and Drug Administration and setting up centers to make vaccines quickly.
The report from the Health and Human Services Department said the U.S. ability to respond to new outbreaks is far too slow and it lays out a plan for helping researchers and biotechnology companies develop promising new drugs and vaccines.
NORD Tells Senate Parents Shouldn’t Bear Burden of Seeking Children’s Cures
07/25/2010
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07/25/2010 An advocate for people with rare diseases today told a U.S. Senate committee that the burden of funding and driving research on rare diseases too often falls upon patients and their families.
"As a society, it is wrong for us to expect people with devastating diseases to fund the search for their treatments," said Diane Dorman, vice president for public policy of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). "There are nearly 7,000 rare diseases, and only about 200 of them have treatments. Many are not being studied by any researcher in government, academia or industry.
U.S. Sets Rules for Employer Healthcare Plans
06/14/2010
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06/14/2010 By Deborah Charles
The Obama administration on Monday announced new rules it said would protect Americans who want to keep their current health insurance but critics say the changes could end up causing millions to lose their coverage.
Part of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, the new regulations are meant to discourage companies from making major changes in health insurance benefits.
Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the new rules "make good on the president's promise that Americans can keep their health plan and doctor they like under the new law."
FDA Faults Companies on Unapproved Genetic Tests
06/13/2010
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06/13/2010 By Andrew Pollack
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on 23andMe and other companies that sell genetic tests directly to consumers.
The F.D.A. sent letters this week to five companies involved in that business, saying their tests are medical devices that must receive regulatory approval before they can be marketed.
