Armand Biroonak

Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.

Calling an overhaul of the health care system a basic element of his administration’s economic recovery programs, President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday presented former Senator Tom Daschle as his choice to become secretary of health and human services and to lead efforts to secure “affordable, accessible health care for every single American.”

Under a program called Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays insurers for delivering Medicare benefits. The insurance companies' payments are based, in part, on their anticipated revenues and expenses. If the companies had been more accurate, they could have spent much of that $1.3 billion on enhanced health benefits or lower monthly premiums, and they still would have maintained their expected profit margin, the Government Accountability Office said in a report expected to be released Thursday.

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

The price of houses across the United States were 16.6 percent lower in the third quarter than they were in the July-September period a year ago, according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a widely watched gauge released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. That came after a 15.1 percent decline in the second quarter.

The Bush Administration’s privatized “Medicare Advantage” plans are rising twice as fast as costs in traditional Medicare, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan prohibits the federal government's ability to negotiate drug prices--costing the government an estimated $90 billion annually.

Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.

Calling an overhaul of the health care system a basic element of his administration’s economic recovery programs, President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday presented former Senator Tom Daschle as his choice to become secretary of health and human services and to lead efforts to secure “affordable, accessible health care for every single American.”

Under a program called Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays insurers for delivering Medicare benefits. The insurance companies' payments are based, in part, on their anticipated revenues and expenses. If the companies had been more accurate, they could have spent much of that $1.3 billion on enhanced health benefits or lower monthly premiums, and they still would have maintained their expected profit margin, the Government Accountability Office said in a report expected to be released Thursday.

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

The price of houses across the United States were 16.6 percent lower in the third quarter than they were in the July-September period a year ago, according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a widely watched gauge released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. That came after a 15.1 percent decline in the second quarter.

The Bush Administration’s privatized “Medicare Advantage” plans are rising twice as fast as costs in traditional Medicare, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan prohibits the federal government's ability to negotiate drug prices--costing the government an estimated $90 billion annually.