News

2009

August

02

• Curbing runaway health inflation. This year’s effort to reform health care revolves around two powerful, conflicting imperatives. One is to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans. The other is to absorb the enormous cost of that plan —

• Prolonged aid to unemployment running out. Over the coming months, as many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits, ending what for some has been a last bulwark against foreclosures and destitution. Because of emergency extensions already enacted

• Obama trims sails on health care reform. Fom the start of his presidency, Barack Obama made clear that his plan for enacting comprehensive health-care reform came down to three words: fast, broad and bipartisan. That was then. Now, as lawmakers begin to

01

• Will a new agency protect your finances?. Health-care reform has drawn most of the attention on Capitol Hill lately, but for home buyers and sellers and mortgage applicants, the legislative ballgame will really get underway in September. That's when Congress begins serious

July

30

• Help for FHA mortgage holders. Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will be eligible for payment reductions similar to the Obama administration's loan modification program, the government will announce Thursday. Effective Aug. 15, financially troubled homeowners who have an

• Lucrative fees may deter efforts to alter home loans. This week, the Obama administration summoned mortgage company executives to Washington to demand they move faster to lower payments for homeowners sliding toward foreclosure. Treasury officials called on the companies to hire and train more

28

• Cash-for-clunkers auto eligibility changed. As it prepared for its "cash-for-clunkers" program, the government rejiggered gas mileage figures on about 100 older vehicles last week in a way that changed whether they would be eligible for up to $4,500 in sales inducements.

27

• Subsidies are crucial in health care reform. The major health care bills moving through Congress would require nearly all Americans to have health insurance. But as lawmakers struggle to achieve the goal of universal coverage, a critical question is whether the plans

26

• Don't assume auto payments will end. MY wife likes to anticipate things going awry. When she signed an auto lease agreement three years ago, she authorized the leasing company to pull its monthly payments directly from our checking account. But once

23

• Obama: Health care reform changes treatment for the better. President Obama said Wednesday he was unable to guarantee that health care reform won't change how Americans get medical treatment, but he said any changes would be necessary and positive. In a nationally televised news

21

• Driven to distraction: Cellphone driving risk data witheld. In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel. They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was

16

• Going on vacation? Think before you tweet. Here’s a shout out to Spencer in California. Based on your recent tweets, it looks like the family is having an awesome vacation. As I’m writing this column, I see you’re in

14

• Americans want health care bill, but not the cost. Most Americans say it's important to overhaul health care this year, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, but they are less enthusiastic about some of the proposals to pay for it. And while a majority

12

• Dems at odds for financing health reform. House and Senate Democrats appeared on Thursday to be on a collision course over how to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system, with the House planning to propose an

• Jobless rate so high? So are late payments. Credit can be a lifeline after a layoff, but beware of the line becoming too long. As data from the American Bankers Association shows, consumer delinquencies — defined as payments that are 30 or more days overdue —

09

• Protecting homeowners for the unexpected. Thomas Mackey has a nice little three-bedroom house on a golf course in Carolina Beach, N.C. Last fall, when he refinanced his mortgage, Mackey, 61, had a good job as director of food services at

• Don't add confusion to survivors' grief. The death of Michael Jackson, and the initial confusion over his will, got me to thinking: My husband and I are long overdue for updating ours. Along with the updated will, we need to attach

07

• Health care reform: What it means for you. As President Obama and Congress try to overhaul health care, almost every American has a stake. Will you get the care you need? Can you avoid financial ruin? The potential upsides and downsides described below

• Social Security numbers not hard to guess. Researchers have found that it is possible to guess many -- if not all -- of the nine digits in an individual's Social Security number using publicly available information, a finding they say compromises the

06

• Familiar faces in health lobbying. The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues, according to an analysis of