Growth in health care spending in the United States is projected to be 6.7 percent in 2007, according to a report issued today by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Average annual growth is expected to remain near that rate through 2017, the report said. The analysis was prepared by CMS’s Office of the Actuary and published online by the journal Health Affairs.

Governors are pressing Congress to include funding for Medicaid in a second economic stimulus package, CongressDaily reports. A bipartisan group of governors on Monday morning met with President Bush and administration officials to push a second package; however, Bush indicated that he likely would not support the effort, according to CongressDaily. The group also plans to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday.

The experimental microbicide tenofovir is safe for women to use daily, according to results from clinical trials funded by NIH and conducted in three locations in the U.S. and India, though it is too early to tell if it actually prevents HIV infection, Reuters reports (Fox, Reuters, 2/25).

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress introduced President Bush’s Medicare savings bill on Monday, CongressDaily reports. The bill was required after Medicare trustees issued a funding warning that “triggers” legislation to curb spending for the program, which is mandated by the 2003 Medicare law (Johnson, CongressDaily, 2/26).

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has proposed requiring most Medi-Cal beneficiaries to fill out eligibility forms four times annually as a way to reduce program costs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Medi-Cal is the state’s Medicaid program. The plan, which would affect 4.

FDA granted accelerated approval to Genentech’s cancer treatment Avastin for metastatic breast cancer treatment Friday despite an agency advisory panel recommendation against approval of the drug for that purpose, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Perrone, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/23).

The following summarizes research from the February 2008 edition of the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.”

States increasingly are encouraging residents to purchase private long-term care insurance as a way to reduce Medicaid costs, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2007, Medicaid spending for older adults’ nursing facilities and other long-term care reached $100 billion. As a result, 15 states are promoting LTC policies under marketing partnerships with the insurance industry, and more than a dozen other states are starting such partnerships.

The New Hampshire Legislature on Friday approved $50 million in cuts to the fiscal year 2008 state budget, including reductions in Medicaid hospital payments, AP/Foster’s Daily Democrat reports. Funding for the state

As many as half of patients with superficial bladder cancer do not respond to the standard first-line chemotherapy placed into the bladder, according to current multi-center outcomes data. When this happens, typically, their only option is surgical removal of the bladder.