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Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries
"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.Bloggers are tentatively reacting to a report and blog post released by the Congressional Budget Office that summarizes the agency"s approach to estimating the cost of any health overhaul bills. At issue is how CBO will count different stipulations of legislation -- like an individual mandate or a public plan -- and whether their conclusions will result in a heftier price tag. Douglas Elmendorf explained on the Director"s Blog: "In CBO"s view, the key consideration is whether a proposal would be making health insurance an essentially governmental program, tightly controlled by the federal government with little choice available to those who offer and buy health insurance -- or whether the system would provide significant flexibility in terms of the types, prices, and number of private-sector sellers of insurance available to people. The former -- a governmental program -- belongs in the federal budget (including all premiums paid by individuals and firms to private insurers), but the latter -- a largely private-sector system -- does not." Janet Adamy of the Wall Street Journal"s Washington Wire notes that the report doesn"t address the cost estimates of the scenarios. Alan Katz on his Health Care Reform Blog concludes, "the message is clear: the looser government"s hand grips the new health care system the smaller its budgetary impact." Liberal bloggers had a variety of reactions -- some found the report too vague, while others saw it as good news. The New Republic"s Jonathan Cohn says, "you may need a Talmudic scholar to figure out what those implications are." Cohn continues, "Other passages in the briefing are [similarly] vexing and, for what it"s worth, the reactions I"ve gotten from insiders familiar with the report have ranged from sighs of relief to statements not suitable for a family blog." Ezra Klein agrees the report lacks specificity, but says, "Even so, I"m cheered by the simple existence of this ruling. The fact that CBO is explaining its thinking before legislation arrives [is] yet more evidence that CBO appears, insofar as it can, to be trying to help out on health reform. ... That"s an important change from past years." Interesting Elsewhere:

American Medical Association Commits To Help Slow Increases In Health Spending
"The need for health reform that provides coverage and high quality, affordable health care for all Americans is clear. Rising health-care costs strain individual, business and government budgets, and projected increases in health spending are not sustainable. The AMA is committed to action to help achieve greater value from our nation"s health-care spending. We want to help bend the spending curve and move forward on health reform.
News of the day
ARCA Biopharma Receives Complete Response Letter From FDA On The GencaroTM NDA
ARCA biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABIO) announced that it received a Complete Response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA, or the Agency) for its New Drug Application (NDA) seeking approval for GencaroTM (bucindolol hydrochloride) for the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure.
Medical Devices

Grameen Foundation, Google, MTN Launch Cell Phone Applications To Help Ugandans Get Health, Other Information

The Grameen Foundation on Tuesday launched the first application of its Application Laboratory (AppLab) project, which aims to use "the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa as a way to get information and services to poor communities in Uganda without Internet access," the Seattle Times" blog, the "Business of Giving," reports (Heim, 6/29). The project first began 18 months ago, according to BusinessWeek"s blog, "Globespotting." The Grameen Foundation has been operating a village phone service in Uganda, and had almost 50,000 people receiving "pay-by-the-minute mobile phone services," the blog writes. "Grameen wanted to broaden into information services and it sought out Google and MTN as potential partners. They did extensive ethnographic studies to see what kinds of services the Ugandan people wanted, and then did pilot projects in the field to test out early versions of the services. They"re launching with a few services and hope to add more later. Eventually, they hope to branch out to other countries in Africa," BusinessWeek writes (Hamm, 6/29). The new services work through any phone capable of sending or receiving SMS messages, Joseph Mucheru, Google"s director of sub-Saharan Africa business, said, adding that almost all phones in Uganda will be able to use the services. According to the Seattle Times, "The five applications use Google SMS Search technology and MTN"s telecom network. They include Farmer"s Friend, a searchable database with agricultural advice and weather forecasts; Health Tips with sexual and reproductive health information, paired with Clinic Finder, to locate nearby health clinics; and Google Trader, which matches buyers and sellers of agricultural produce, commodities and other products." Content is provided by local partners, the newspaper writes. "Marie Stopes Uganda and the Straight Talk Foundation provide health information," while the Busoga Rural Open Development Initiative (BRODSI) provides agricultural information created and tested by small-holder farmers, according to the Seattle Times (6/29). "The cost of the services are relatively low," BusinessWeek reports. The standard cost of an information SMS message in Uganda is 220 Ugandan shillings, around 10 U.S. cents, but the Google SMA services will be offered at 5 U.S. cents per message, and initially, the messages will be free. "The system uses English, but most of the population can get by in English or find somebody to help them send and decipher messages," according to BusinessWeek (6/29). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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