Improve Quality and Cut Health Care Costs

While the new Affordable Health Care law provides a variety of funding opportunities for states, one provision in the health law that could shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal government.  Under the National Medicaid Drug Rebate Program created by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, drug manufacturers are required to enter into agreements that provide rebates for Medicaid purchased drugs, establishing a 15% minimum level of rebates.  Up until now, the rebates were divided between the states and the federal government.  But under the new health reform law, a significant portion of the rebates will go solely to Washington beginning this year.

This week, President Obama released his blueprint for comprehensive health care legislation.  The plan 's release means Obama can outline the specifics of what he wants to see in a final bill for the first time.  Many political observers see the decision to outline specifics as not only a jump start to move health care reform across the finish line but also as a stamp of approval for the Senate to use a majority vote through the reconciliation process, a strategy which appears to be gaining momentum.

Maine's voters approved a measure by a margin of 59% to 41% to make it the fifth state to allow retail pot dispensaries, expanding its existing ten year-old medical marijuana law.  Maine now joins California, Colorado, New Mexico and Rhode Island which allow for places where medical marijuana patients can legally buy pot. Unlike California's more free-wheeling system, Maine law will require that dispensaries be licensed by the state and more narrowly defines medical conditions for which patients can be prescribed pot.

Even as Congress debates increased funding for the federal food stamps program and nutrition aid, this Dispatch will outline the steps states are taking on a wide array of policies that impact working families in urban centers and on rural farms, from food safety and regulation to access to local foods to improving health and nutrition in our communities.

The August heat may be as intense as ever, but government and health officials across the country are preparing for the coming flu season and the possibility that the H1N1 (swine) flu virus could affect half the US population, according to a presidential health panel.  In Maryland, state government, public health officials and the state's 46 hospitals have created a statewide computerized system for tracking the disease, which will help government and health officials mobilize a quick response in the event of an outbreak.

Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent one of the largest and fastest-growing segments ofthe U.S. population without health care coverage.  In an effort toensure that all Americans are insured a growing number of states have enacted legislation to allow children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans well into adulthood.

Even as Planned Parenthood, MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation team up in a campaign to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STD), state legislatures are acting to ensure students' access to comprehensive sex education and are rejecting federal funding for failed abstinence-only programs. Half of all sexually active people will have an STD by the age of 25 with 19 million new STD cases occurring each year. These statistics highlight the need for improving youth sex education.

Stimulus funding, like $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start Programs, $1.5 billion for health center improvements, and $8.4 billion for public transit, should be implemented with a clear intent of reducing racial and ethnic health disparities and achieving equitable resource distribution across communities. 

Prior to last Monday's White House health care forum in Des Moines, Iowa, one of fiveregional forums being held across the country, the Iowa Senate passed two significant health care reform measures - one symbolic and one substantive.

State Sen. Ray Cleary, a South Carolina Republican, has proposed S.286 to create a free dental screening program for schoolchildren in at least 3 of the state's poorest counties - where children are most likely to go without regular dental care. Sen. Cleary, a dentist himself, wants to combat the adverse effects that poor dental health has on a child's education, including the inability to focus while in school because of pain and missed school days. According to the Pew Center on the States, tooth decay is the most common childhood disease, affecting 60% of all children and causing kids across the country to miss 51 million hours of school time each year.