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East African Officials Meet To Coordinate HIV/AIDS, Transport Efforts
East African health officials on Tuesday met in Kisumu, Kenya, to examine integrating HIV/AIDS issues into transport policies in the region, Xinhua/CRI.com reports. The East African Community in a statement released ahead of the conference on Monday said that the meeting, which runs through Friday, brings together more than 100 stakeholders at the national and regional levels, including experts from national AIDS commissions, as well as representatives from transport, health, trade, immigration, gender and youth ministries. Representatives from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are attending the conference. Other representatives include those from the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, USAID, the International Organization for Migration, the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa, East Africa Trade and Transport, and the East, Central and Southern African Health Community. Delegates from the EAC Regional Inter-Parliamentary Forum on Health, Population and Development also are attending.The meeting aims to promote improved regional coordination and quality of HIV services for at-risk populations by bringing together national and regional efforts along major land, sea, ocean and inland transport systems. It also will provide an update on studies conducted to determine HIV transmission modes in the region, as well as identity appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment and support initiatives for communities located on transit hubs and corridors. According to the EAC statement, the meeting will identify ways for the transport sector to work in partnership with various implementing partners and local communities to address HIV/AIDS (Xinhua/CRI.com, 5/19).
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East Texas Health Organization Sees Increase In HIV Cases
Officials at an East Texas health care organization, Health Horizons, which provides HIV testing and other services to people in 12 counties, "has seen more East Texans test positive for [HIV] so far this year than it did for all of 2008," the Lufkin Daily News reports. Executive Director Wilbert Brown said, "We"ve had eight people out of more than 800 test positive for HIV in the first seven months of this year. Most of those have been African-American men. Last year we had a total of six out of more than 1,000. I expect us to see two or three more positives before the year is out. The state average for testing positive is one in 100, and we"re getting close to that number." According to the article, "Brown said he attributes the increase to Health Horizon"s aggressive outreach program targeting high-risk groups and to people realizing the importance of getting tested." The Daily News article also profiles a client of Health Horizons (Cooley, 8/2)
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Franken To Be Seated As Minn. Senator, Will Serve On HELP, Judiciary Committees
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously voted to uphold Al Franken"s (D) win in the 2008 U.S. Senate election in Minnesota, effectively clearing the way for Franken to become the state"s newest senator, the Wall Street Journal reports. His election gives Democrats in the Senate a 60-vote supermajority, which could help the party pass health care reform legislation, according to the Journal. Following the ruling, opponent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) conceded the election, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said that he would certify the result Tuesday.Franken is expected to be seated next week. He will join the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he will vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is completing its draft of health care reform legislation (Bendavid/Hitt, Wall Street Journal, 7/1).
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Lawmakers Dilemma: Should Tax Increases Pay For Health Care Overhaul?

As lawmakers disagree over which taxes to raise to pay for health care reform, they "also face another problem: They"re confronting the fear that"s made it hard to raise taxes for more than 30 years. Republicans and moderate Democrats think that any tax increase is political poison back home," McClatchy Newspapers reports. "Republicans are pouncing on Democrats, charging that the party is eager to add a new tax burden to already-strapped constituents in the midst of a recession. ò€¦ The current House Democratic plan would raise an estimated $543.9 billion over 10 years by imposing what it calls a "graduated surcharge" on higher-income earners." One criticism of the proposal is that "small businesses will be hurt. Surcharge backers cite data from Congress" Joint Committee on Taxation that indicate that 96 percent of small businesses wouldn"t be affected." "Another problem, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is that selling the surcharge as part of a health care overhaul is tough, because it"s hard to explain to constituents how raising general tax rates affects health care. For all these reasons, said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, "the surcharge is not even on the table here," in bipartisan negotiations among members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee" (Lightman, 7/30). The Wall Street Journal"s Health Blog reports that "Americans are still OK with the idea of taxing rich people to pay for part of the big health-care overhaul now being debated in Washington. In the latest WSJ/NBC poll, 68% of respondents said raising taxes on families making more than $1 million a year was an "acceptable" option" (Goldstein, 7/30). Related: KHN"s Julie Appleby examination of insurance tax options. 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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