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Rep. Pitts To Offer Amendment Excluding Abortion Coverage From House Health Care Bill
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) said he plans to introduce an amendment to the House health care overhaul bill (HR 3200) that would prohibit insurers from being required to cover abortion, unless the woman"s life is at risk or the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, CQ Today reports. Pitts said he will offer the amendment Thursday at the first House Energy and Commerce Committee mark-up session.The House bill would authorize the Obama administration to craft minimum benefit standards for health insurance plans, CQ Today reports. President Obama has said that he considers reproductive health care an essential service. Democrats say Republicans are trying to expand the Hyde amendment"s exclusion on using federal Medicaid funding to cover abortion to all health care services. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), vice chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said, "I think that if anti-choice Republicans or others see this as an opportunity to expand prohibitions on a legally allowed and medically appropriate practice, then they are wrong." She added, "We are not going to use the health care bill to expand prohibitions on a legal medical practice, period." Pitts, Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) and other supporters of the amendment say it is necessary to block the administration from requiring abortion coverage. The committee has blocked three of Smith"s abortion-related amendments so far this year (Wayne, CQ Today, 7/15).

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Lancet Commentary Examines How PEPFAR Failing To Reach IDUs
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Neurological Differences Support Dyslexia Subtypes
Parts of the right hemisphere of the brains of people with dyslexia have been shown to differ from those of normal readers. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the two groups, and were able to associate the neurological differences found with different language difficulties within the dyslexic group.
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Obama Plan To Cut Hospital Payments Draws Ire

The Obama administration has called for $200 billion in cuts for hospital reimbursements in an effort to overhaul the health care system. Federal funding under the reimbursement system known as "disproportionate share payments" is provided to hospitals in large part to help meet the cost of caring for the uninsured. Administration officials argue that as the number of uninsured decrease, reimbursements should also fall. However, hospital leaders and staff worry about such cuts as well as calls for a government-run insurance plan to compete with private plans. In an interview with NPR, Peter Orszag, director of the White House"s Office of Management and Budget, defended the plan, saying it will put the U.S. "on a path to eliminating the number of uninsured people in the United States." Orszag says opposition is inevitable that that "evidence suggests that many insurance markets lack adequate competition, and the goal of the public plan is to expand choice, introduce more competition and drive down premium costs." NPR reports that: "Hospital officials say that will result in cuts in services to the people who need it most."" On "All Things Considered,"" NPR spoke with Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association who has expressed disappointment about the plan. Umbdenstock tells NPR "that the hospitals have accepted "in principle" that reimbursements from Washington will decline as the number of insured patients rise at those institutions. But, he says, too many questions remain." Such questions include when coverage will kick in, at what level and across what proportion of the uninsured population. Umbdenstock also emphasized the need to look at reform in context with affordability, coverage and quality (Norris and Siegel, 6/16). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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