Broker Regulation

Massachusetts health insurers would be required to pay lower rates to some of the state's most expensive health care providers, while boosting rates for some of the lowest-paid providers, under legislation introduced Tuesday by a top lawmaker.

Fewer Medicare prescription drug plan enrollees are falling into a coverage gap known as the doughnut hole in which they bear the full cost of their prescriptions, according to a study from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again. Republicans offered Tuesday to compromise with him on jobs but also assailed his plans in advance of his prime-time speech.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned that the Postal Service is on "the brink of default" as he battles to keep his agency solvent. Without legislation by Sept. 30, the agency "will default on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury," Donahoe told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs...

President Barack Obama faces a long re-election campaign having all but given up on the economy rebounding in any meaningful way before November 2012.

A look at some of the nation's most contentious collective bargaining, benefits and employment issues that made headlines in recent months.