Core and Group Health

The powerful new congressional panel assigned to tame the deficit will have to squeeze Medicare and Medicaid for any chance of success. But health care industries that depend on those programs have invested millions over the years to woo its members.

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.

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.

New Hampshire is joining a growing national trend in allowing pharmacists to give more vaccinations than annual flu shots but doctors oppose the changes in what appears to be a turf war over a profitable aspect of medical care.