Here is a description from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website describing what it does:

"THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

HHS REPRESENTS ALMOST A QUARTER OF ALL FEDERAL OUTLAYS, and it administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. HHS' Medicare program is the nation's largest health insurer, handling more than 1 billion claims per year. Medicare and Medicaid together provide health care insurance for one in four Americans.

HHS WORKS CLOSELY WITH STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, and many HHS-funded services are provided at the local level by state or county agencies, or through private sector grantees. The Department's programs are administered by 11 operating divisions, including eight agencies in the U.S. Public Health Service and three human services agencies. In addition to the services they deliver, the HHS programs provide for equitable treatment of beneficiaries nationwide, and they enable the collection of national health and other data."

Let's recap some important points contained in this short description.

• [ HHS] is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans
• [ HHS] administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined
• [HHS'] Medicare program is the nation's largest health insurer, handling more than 1 billion claims per year
• [HHS' programs] enable the collection of national health and other data

This is a very broad description of what this tax payer funded institution is responsible for. However, just reading this brief description and focusing on the bulleted information above it should be obvious that this agency affects the lives of most Americans in direct and indirect ways that many of us may not be aware of and, of course, probably don't ever really think about. It would be interesting to find some information or case studies of some sort that describe how an individual is affected by the policies, programs, and regulations which fall under the purview of the Department of Heath & Human Services in order to illustrate concretely how you or I are likely to benefit from or be affected by the the services that this department provides and the work that it does. However, for now I just wanted to post this basic description in order to bring some very general awareness regarding what HHS does. Now, there is a reason that I took valuable time out of my day to look up and post this information and it's not because I have temporarily gone insane or becuase I am just that bored. I have been working on a post that (is unfortunatley not quite finished) provides some very interesting and alarming information related to this agency, which I hope to have up soon. In the meantime, however, please take a few minutes and read the bulleted points again and then just think about them for a second or two.