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California Gov. Schwarzenegger's State Budget Plan Includes Cuts To County HIV/AIDS Services
The Santa Maria Times examines how California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger"s (R) plan to reduce state spending by more than $5 billion over the next two fiscal years, which includes millions of dollars in funding cuts to HIV prevention, education and treatment programs, could affect county residents (Womack, Santa Maria Times, 5/31). According to the Times, hundreds of residents in Santa Barbara County -- including more than 100 AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) clients -- would potentially be affected by the funding cuts (Santa Maria Times, 5/31). The proposal also would result in $1.8 million in cuts to programs for low-income residents living with HIV in Riverside County, the Desert Sun reports (Brambila, Desert Sun, 5/29). The plan, issued by Schwarzenegger last week, includes $55.5 million in cuts to California"s ADAP and other state Office of AIDS programs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/27).

The Characteristics Of Clarithromycin-Resistant Helicobacter pylori
Clarithromycin is currently one of the antibiotics used for eradication of Helicobacter pylori. However, reports of H. pylori resistance to this antibiotic are increasing worldwide. Clarithromycin resistance has been attributed to the presence of mutations in the 23S rRNA gene, a component of the ribosome that is the protein manufacturing machinery of all living cells. There is little information on the prevalence and characteristics of clarithromycin resistance in H. pylori strains isolated from Malaysian patients.
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Local Food Environments Can Lead To Obesity
Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight.
Public Health

Massachusetts, Tennessee Health Plans Might Offer Ideas On U.S. Health Care System Overhaul

Congressional lawmakers who are crafting a plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system might be able to look to state health insurance programs in Massachusetts and Tennessee for ideas, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Health reform legislation modeled after Massachusetts" near-universal health insurance law "is likely to emerge" in Congress, "although details remain unsettled," the AP/Star Tribune reports. The plan also could include components of Tennessee"s CoverTN program, which charges beneficiaries who smoke or are overweight higher premiums. Lawmakers in the Senate already have discussed a lifestyle tax funding mechanism, such as taxes on alcohol and sugary beverages. According to AP/Star Tribune, Massachusetts "chose to cover virtually everyone," while Tennessee "chose to get just a few more people bare-bones insurance at a budget price with limits on how much plans would pay for hospital stays."Alan Weil of the National Academy for State Health Policy said, "The belief that we should all have health insurance coverage is broadly held," but "there are tremendous differences around the country in beliefs on how to achieve that goal." He added, "We learn from Massachusetts that a bold objective matters. If it can be sustained, that"s terrific," and "[i]t would be nice if you had a southern state that had achieved universal coverage and did it in a different way, but we don"t have that" (Johnson, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/28). American Public Media"s "Marketplace" on Thursday reported on a study published in Health Affairs that looked at the Massachusetts program. The segment included comments from Jon Kingsdale, director of the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority, and University of North Carolina Health Care System CEO Bill Roper (Babin, "Marketplace," American Public Media, 5/28). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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