Lifestyle and Budget

Gov. Jerry Brown has approved a spending plan that uses California's growing surplus to fund new anti-poverty initiatives.

The average consumer should catch a price break if major health insurers like Anthem and Cigna combine and cut their expenses.

European leaders told Greece on Friday to return to the negotiating table for "intensive work" to wrap up a reform agreement before cash runs out, sidestepping Athens' demand for a comprehensive, long-term solution to its troubles.

New York regulators say 11 lenders have agreed to regularly monitor and maintain vacant properties in an effort to combat neighborhood blight.

Assurant Inc. says it will sell or shut down its health insurance division that has struggled financially since the introduction of the federal Affordable Care Act.

An $80 million piece of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's plan for balancing Kansas' next budget is in trouble because a major health insurance company opposes it, and a GOP lawmaker said Wednesday the measure probably should be dropped.

California households that use the least electricity would start paying more for it, under a proposal put before state utility regulators on Tuesday intended to bring the prices charged for electricity more in line with its actual costs.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he is suing the Obama administration for withholding federal money for hospitals that serve the poor, saying they are doing so because the state won't expand Medicaid.

A divided state Senate approved revisions Thursday to Michigan's auto insurance law that backers said would curtail costs in the only state to require unlimited medical benefits for those severely injured in crashes and that opponents warned would hurt patients.

Highlights of House-passed legislation the Senate debated Tuesday changing how Medicare reimburses doctors.

Huge majorities of both parties in Congress have finally banded together and approved legislation permanently reshaping how Medicare reimburses doctors for treating over 50 million elderly people.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is proposing an income cap on Social Security benefits as part of major restructuring plan announced ahead of a likely presidential bid.

Legislation permanently overhauling how Medicare pays physicians won approval Tuesday from an atypically united Congress as lawmakers banded together to erase an irritant that has dogged them for years.

A Missouri lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses three insurance agencies of failing to safeguard sensitive consumer data from hackers who recently breached health insurer Anthem Inc.'s computer networks.

Jill Mooney recently took out a $300 loan from a storefront business to get out of a financial jam, putting up her $1,400 car as collateral.

A $24 billion sea of red ink has millions of Americans in vulnerable flood zones, including homeowners still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy, facing steep increases in flood insurance premiums.

A necessary burden for most Americans, Tax Day is an accounting nightmare for thousands of gay and lesbian couples as they wrestle with the uneven legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Up to 17,000 Detroit-area property owners have entered into payment plans hoping to avoid losing their homes to tax foreclosure, and that number will likely rise.

With Republicans muscling a balanced-budget plan through the Senate, Congress is positioned for months of battling President Barack Obama over the GOP's goals of slicing spending and dismantling his health care law.

Payday lenders are facing new federal regulations aimed at preventing low-income borrowers from being buried by high fees and rising debt loads.