The news keeps getting better for dividend investors. But can it last?

The latest sign of a dividend renaissance is Apple's decision to begin sharing some of its profits with shareholders for the first time in nearly two decades. The world's most valuable company will start paying a dividend later this year, rather than continue to stockpile cash from iPhone and iPad sales.

That announcement came a week after major banks moved to restore their dividends, after cutting them during the financial crisis to conserve cash. At least nine top banks plan to raise their payouts or are considering doing so after the government conducted stress tests to ensure the banks can survive another crisis.

It adds up to better times ahead for dividend investors. Payouts by companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index are expected to climb 15 percent from last year to $277 billion, according to S&P Indices. That amount would top the previous record of $248 billion, set in 2008. Three-quarters of the S&P 500's dividend-paying companies are making higher payouts than they did last year.

Interest is so intense that hedge funds and many other Wall Street pros who normally avoid dividend stocks have been rushing into them lately, and Apple's actions can only add to the frenzy, says analyst Howard Silverblatt of S&P Indices.

In fact, dividend stocks have been among the market's strongest performers the past 12 months, a fact that hasn't been lost on investors. Over that period, they have deposited a net $25 billion into mutual funds specializing in dividend stocks – usually labeled `equity income' funds – according to industry consultant Strategic Insight.

That number wouldn't normally be impressive, except that the cash came in as investors pulled out of nearly all other types of stock funds. A net total of $136 billion was withdrawn from all other stock fund categories, reflecting........More

Dawn Josephson could barely believe it when she found health insurance that would actually cover the cost of treating her young son’s eye condition.

Josephson, a freelance editor, wife and mother of two in Jacksonville, Fla., had been spending as much as $1,000 a month of her family’s budget on surgery, doctor visits, tests, and treatments in the seven months since 2-year-old Wesley awoke one morning with his eyes pointed toward each other, a condition called strabismus. That was on top of the $807 in monthly premiums the family spent on an insurance plan that excluded anything related to her son’s eyes.

A few weeks after President Barack Obama signed a sweeping health care reform law in March 2010, Josephson got a call from another insurance company telling her the family had been accepted into a new plan. “What about Wesley’s eye? If he needs another surgery, another test, another something, is it covered?” she asked the customer service representative. She pressed the point again: What’s the catch? “Nothing. Your family’s fully covered,” she was told.

Josephson's change in fortune was the result of the new law's provision that prohibits insurance companies from refusing to cover children with pre-existing medical conditions. The family's new insurer decided to change its rules before the law required it, giving Josephson, her husband Dave, Wesley, and his little sister Margo some relief. A few months later, Josephson got to meet Obama at a health care reform event in Falls Church, Va.

Even with that relief, Josephson can't rest easy. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next week in a case challenging the constitutionality of health reform. The court, or a Republican president next year, could reverse the family's fortunes again, with Josephson's son, now 6, still struggling to gain control of his right eye. He sometimes wears an eye patch, and might need more surgery, Josephson said.

The fate of millions of other Americans also hangs on the Supreme Court's ruling. Repealing health care reform would squash the hopes of uninsured people struggling to pay for health care.

“I definitely think I’d have to worry about it,” Josephson said. “It’s scary because you see the before and after.”