Worst Week Ever

Cloaked in the fear of a global recession, U.S. stocks limped to the end of a brutal week of trading yesterday, ending their worst week in history.

The Standard and Poor's 500-stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 18 percent of their value this week, with the Dow falling through two floors: closing below 9,000 for the first time since 2003 and briefly dipping below 8,000. The Nasdaq composite index was down 15 percent. Both the S&P 500, a broader index watched by market professionals, and the Dow, an index of 30 blue-chip stocks, declined by record rates this week.

The Dow fell 1.49 percent, or 128 points, yesterday, to close at 8451.19. The S&P 500 fell 1.18 percent, to close at 899.22, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq managed to eke out a 0.27 percent gain, closing at 1649.51. It was the eighth straight trading day of losses for the S&P 500 and Dow. ...read more here...

...And some good news...

An estimated 113 million Americans, including hundreds of thousands in the Washington region, will receive better insurance coverage for their mental health and substance abuse problems because of landmark legislation that for the first time requires mental and physical illnesses to be treated equally.

The law is a culmination of a decade of lobbying and negotiating among advocates for the mentally ill, the insurance industry, the business community - including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - and doctors' groups. The change, which was included in the economic rescue package signed by President Bush last week, will take effect Jan. 1, 2010, for most plans. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees would be exempt.

For decades, insurance companies could offer less coverage for the treatment of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder than of such diseases as cancer and diabetes -- so people with mental illness or substance abuse problems often had to pay for expensive treatment and medication out-of-pocket.

The new law bars companies from setting higher co-pays or deductibles for mental health and substance abuse treatment. Plans also will be prohibited from lowering benefit levels or restricting the number of outpatient therapy sessions or hospital treatment days. And if a health plan allows out-of-network visits for the treatment of physical illnesses, it will also have to offer identical out-of-network coverage for mental health care. ...read more here...