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Health Insurance Exchanges Gain Attention
Kaiser Health News reports on health insurance exchanges, a concept now being considered in the context of Congress"s health overhaul proposals. "The seemingly simple idea behind exchanges - one-stop shopping for insurance - masks the cornerstone role they may play in a national overhaul of the health system. President Obama supports the idea, and exchanges are included in most of the health care proposals now before Congress. Done right, proponents say, exchanges could transform how insurance is sold, giving individuals and small businesses improved purchasing power, increasing price competition among insurers and creating standardized benefits. Done poorly, analysts and critics say, exchanges could drive up insurance costs and encourage employers to drop coverage, unraveling the system that insures most working Americans. While it"s still unclear what Congress will do, Senate Democrats have looked closely at Massachusetts. Here"s how it works there: The state established its exchange, called the Health Connector, mainly for the benefit of individuals who aren"t insured by employers. They include the self-employed and the unemployed, two categories of people who traditionally have the most difficulty obtaining policies. Although not required to buy through the exchange, doing so gives them group-purchasing power. Lower-income people are eligible for state subsidies."
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Cancer May Be Stopped In Its Tracks By MicroRNA Replacement Therapy
A new study suggests that delivering small RNAs, known as microRNAs, to cancer cells could help to stop the disease in its tracks. microRNAs control gene expression and are commonly lost in cancerous tumors. Researchers have shown that replacement of a single microRNA in mice with an extremely aggressive form of liver cancer can be enough to halt their disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.
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Families Struggle In Low-, Middle-Income Countries To Pay For Health Care, Study Shows

IRIN examines a Health Affairs report that found "one in four families living in the world"s poorest countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care" (7/15). The study authors used information about low- and middle-income countries obtained by the World Health Survey (WHS) - "a set of nationally representative, standardized household surveys designed to assess health status, health care financing, health care use, and levels of satisfaction with countries" health systems" - to calculate how people paid for health care. The data, the authors write, "represented a combined population of 3.66 billion, or 58 percent of the world"s population" (Kruk et. al, Health Affairs, 7/09). From 2002 to 2004, 26 percent of those represented by the survey - "most often the poorest households with little or no health insurance - used "hardship financing" ò€¦ to cover health costs," IRIN/allAfrica.com reports. Health Affairs cites a 2007 study of global health insurance programs that shows "out-of-pocket payments accounted for 70 percent of health payments in low-income countries compared to less than 15 percent in richer countries." The IRIN article also examines recent efforts by the governments of Liberia, Ghana and Burkina Faso to lessen the burden of health services on the poor, including the implementation of a national insurance program in Ghana and free health services for children under age five with "severe forms of malaria" in Burkina Faso (7/15). 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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