It's not just spending on U.S. healthcare that is breaking records. Drugmakers, insurers and industry groups are on track to spend an all-time high of more than $500 million this year to influence Congress' revamp of the healthcare system.

Wall Street may be roaring again and manufacturers see a bright future selling their wares in Asia. But for many Americans, it's still a downturn until the jobs come back.

Stocks retreated Tuesday after several earnings reports beat expectations but economic numbers missed their targets.  The Dow shed more than 50 points, or 0.5 percent, but still held above 10,000. The S&P and Nasdaq each lost about 0.6 percent.

Stocks retreated Tuesday after several earnings reports beat expectations but economic numbers missed their targets.  Apple and Caterpillar surged after their earnings blew past forecasts.

The largest US health insurer said results at its government and services businesses were strong in the third quarter, and its profit rose 13 percent to top Wall Street estimates.

Futures were poised for a modestly higher open on the strength of more earnings surprises from some of Wall Street's leading companies.

From the entire S&P 500, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops? With data from ThomsonReuters, we took a look at which stocks have consensus estimates farthest above their stock prices (as of market close on 9/30/09).

President Barack Obama's U.S. healthcare overhaul plan has cleared an important Senate hurdle but lawmakers warned on Sunday of challenges ahead in winning support for passage, even among Obama's own Democrats.

Virtually every large pharmaceutical company seems to have discovered cancer, and a substantial portion of the smaller biotechnology companies are focused on it as well. Together, the companies are pouring billions of dollars into developing cancer drugs.

Costs for employer-provided health plans are expected to rise more than 10 percent within the next year, a jump workers may feel in their paychecks or through changes to their insurance coverage.

For the insurance industry, long an opponent of health care reform, it was a striking change: with a new administration coming to Washington, insurers agreed to abandon some of their most controversial practices, like denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing medical conditions.

A Seattle clinic for people fed up with insurance, started by doctors fed up with insurance, has gotten $4 million in private venture capital money to expand.

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

He was one of the architects during Kmart's bankruptcy reorganization of a multiyear business plan and helped revitalize a health insurer and a manufactured-home builder.