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Obama: Expect mixed healthcare financing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama says he expects the final healthcare financing provisions will be a blend of the House and Senate versions.

Asked by National Public Radio whether he prefers the House version, which would tax wealthy individuals, or the Senate version, which would tax healthcare providers and generous insurance plans, Obama said he thinks "we're going to end up seeing a little bit of both."

"You are going to have some provisions that are smart that are in the House bill. There are going to be some provisions that are the right thing to do in the Senate bill," Obama said, adding he thinks taxing so-called Cadillac plans is a good idea "that helps bend the cost curve."

"But the important thing, when you look at the Senate and the House bill, is not the huge differences; it's actually the remarkable similarities. Ninety-five percent of the House bill and the Senate bill are in accord," the first-year Democratic president said in the interview aired Wednesday. "And there are going to be some tough negotiations around the 5 percent. What we know is that under either the Senate or the House bill, there is going to be an exchange set up so that people who right now can't get insurance in the private market can go in and get a good deal."

Midwest prepares for Christmas blizzard

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Snow, ice and sleet ahead of an expected epic U.S. Midwestern Christmas blizzard were affecting swaths of the region Wednesday, meteorologists said.

Roads, power lines and sidewalks from the Great Lakes to the High Plains were being coated by ice in advance of a powerful winter storm that was expected to dump up to 20 inches of snow in parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Nebraska by the time it ends on Saturday, Accuweather.com reported.

Others Midwestern states such as Kansas and Oklahoma were also beginning to feel the effect of the storm Wednesday afternoon, forecasters said.

Wind-whipped and blowing snow was expected in Nebraska, Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma Thursday, then spreading northward across the rest of the Plains into Christmas Day with winds gusting to 60 mph.

Accuweather.com said the worst-hit areas would likely include an area stretching from Wichita, Kan., on the south to Marshall, Minn., on the north, from late Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Twelve to 20 inches of snow, with some areas up to 2 feet, will bury the corridor, making travel extremely hazardous, if not impossible.

At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, nearly 100 employees were put on notice Wednesday as more than 100 pieces of snow removal equipment were prepared for action, the Star Tribune reported. Snow had started to fall in the Twin Cities as darkness fell.

Airport spokesman Pat Hogan said bunks were being prepped for workers and he encouraged anyone planning to leave town to do so as soon as possible, telling the newspaper, "Our goal is to keep at least one runway open at all times."

In the South, the same system was generating powerful and damaging thunderstorms.

Accuweater.com said such cities as Houston, Lake Charles, La., Tyler, Texas, and Hot Springs, Ark., were being pelted Wednesday. New Orleans, Memphis and Jackson, Miss., could expect the same Thursday.

CitiGroup, Wells Fargo repay TARP funds

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. banking giants CitiGroup and Wells Fargo have repaid the U.S. Treasury $45 billion in bank bailout funds, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

CitiGroup's and Wells Fargo's repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, brings the total amount repaid to it so far to $164 billion, Treasury officials said in a release.

Wells Fargo repaid $25 billion under the Capital Purchase Program and Citigroup repaid $20 billion under the Targeted Investment Program, both of which are set to be "wound down" at the end of this year.

Treasury officials said they now estimate that total bank repayments should exceed $175 billion by the end of 2010, cutting total taxpayer exposure to the banks by three-quarters.

U.S. officials also that the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Citigroup have terminated the agreement under which the government agreed to share losses on a pool of originally $300 billion of Citigroup assets.

Fraudster Madoff moved to prison hospital

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Bernard Madoff has been moved to the medical wing at the North Carolina prison where he is serving a 150-year sentence for fraud, authorities say.

Madoff, 71, who has been at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C., was transferred to the Federal Medical Center Friday, ABC News reported Wednesday.

Neither Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, nor prison spokeswoman Cathy Elsea would reveal the reason for the move, ABC said.

"The potential reasons for an inmate to transfer are numerous," Elsea told ABC News, "and we do not release those specific reasons."

The Federal Prison Guidebook names the Butner medical center as a special facility for the treatment of cancer, The Wall St. Journal reported.

Federal sentencing attorney, Alan Ellis said the North Carolina facility "one of the crown jewels of the federal prison system."