PORTLAND, Maine — A Portland woman is joining a national contingent of nurses on a relief trip to the Philippines, an island country still recovering from the deadliest typhoon ever to strike it. Typhoon Haiyan, reportedly the strongest such storm to ever make landfall, hit the Southeast Asian country early last month, killing nearly 6,000 people.

The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company. But one holds a clear price advantage. Avastin costs about $50 per injection. Lucentis costs about $2,000 per injection.

WESTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — A Burbank man is among a group of registered nurses departing Monday for the Philippines to provide medical support in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reports as families are busy with December holiday preparations, Paolo Montenegro and others are going to serve others in need thousands of miles away.

Former Secretary of State and longtime Republican Colin Powell is calling for a universal health care solution in the U.S. “We are a wealthy enough country with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care,” he said Thursday at a Seattle fundraiser for prostate cancer. “(Let’s show) the rest of the world what our democratic system is all about and how we take care of all of our citizens."

Nelson Mandela led South Africa from apartheid to multi-racial democracy and will be mourned around the world. Nelson Mandela, the towering figure of Africa's struggle for freedom and a hero to millions around the world, has died at the age of 95. South Africa's first black president died after years of declining health that had caused him to withdraw from public life.

One of the patients featured in the TIME cover story I wrote last March--"Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us"--was Emilia Gilbert, a school-bus driver. Gilbert was 61 years old in 2008 when she slipped and fell one evening in her backyard in Fairfield, Conn. She was taken to the emergency room at Bridgeport Hospital, where she was treated for some cuts and a broken nose. She left a few hours later with a bill for $9,418, which included $6,538 for CT scans and $239 for a routine blood test. The charges, I found, were based on something called the hospital chargemaster--a list of hugely inflated prices that no one could explain or defend.