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Viewpoints: SCOTUS should support contraception mandate; our brains 'not wired' for Obamacare; President's personality impairs law's success

More than a year after it upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court has set the stage for a showdown over the law's requirement that employer health plans cover birth control.

28 Nov 2013

Inhibitor compounds could form basis of new treatments for such diseases as MRSA, anthrax

Inhibitor compounds developed by UC Irvine structural biologists and Northwestern University chemists have been shown to bolster the ability of antibiotics to treat deadly bacterial diseases such as MRSA and anthrax.

27 Nov 2013

State exchanges report November surge

Still, reports on the ground vary -- with some states offering positive news, while others still are limping along. Here is a sampling of coverage from Kentucky, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Massachusetts.

26 Nov 2013

Healthcare.Gov progress reports and post-mortems

KHN report looks forward, about what is next in the queue in efforts to fix the website -- including possible fixes that would allow insurers and web-based brokers to enroll customers directly into subsidized coverage.

26 Nov 2013

Health law's Medicaid expansion running smoothly

While many Americans have struggled to sign up for insurance on the troubled healthcare.gov website, enrollment is moving faster for Medicaid in states that opted into the expanded program.

26 Nov 2013

Administration moves health plan sign-ups to mid-November in 2015

On Friday, the Obama administration announced that starting next year, it will push back the start of the sign-up period for those buying insurance until mid-November, rather than mid-October. Republicans called the shift a blatantly political move.

25 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 25, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how political concerns and strategies are taking shape as a result of healthcare.gov's difficulties.

25 Nov 2013

Capsules: Obamacare deadline for Jan. 1 coverage extended one week

Millions of consumers have been frustrated by their inability to sign up for coverage through healthcare.gov, the federal website for residents of 36 states, which went public Oct. 1. While the administration has said the site will work smoothly for most customers by Nov. 30, some advocates had been concerned that consumers still might not have enough time to sign up for coverage that would take effect Jan. 1.

25 Nov 2013

Calif. won't extend canceled insurance policies despite presidential plea

The five-member board overseeing California's online insurance marketplace unanimously turned down President Obama's call to let insurers continue some health plans that don't meet the health law's requirements. Marketplace officials for Covered California also detailed who has signed up for coverage in the marketplace.

25 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 22, 2013

Today's headlines include reports that the Obama administration will push back 2015 Obamacare enrollment by a month, starting Nov. 15, 2014, instead of Oct. 15, 2014.

22 Nov 2013

HealthCare.gov: It's getting better all the time -- but system flaws, failures persist

Some states and insurers are contemplating alternatives if the website isn't ready by a critical December deadline. Meanwhile, just as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was talking up the website in Florida, it crashed before her eyes.

22 Nov 2013

Oregon health law insurance exchange never worked, officials questioned on problems

Oregon residents are facing a state health exchange application deadline in two weeks to get coverage at the beginning of 2014, even as the online aspect of the marketplace still doesn't work -- and never did. In the meantime, Oregon lawmakers question officials on the exchanges problems and when they knew about them.

22 Nov 2013

How the health law is playing in the states

The Washington Post offers a table documenting how the overhaul is doing while USA Today chronicles successes and failures in three specific states.

22 Nov 2013

Report issued early warnings about HealthCare.gov risks

An analysis done in late March by McKinsey & Co. called attention to a number of trouble spots. Meanwhile, Politico details a "Red Team" report done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that also sounded alarms.

20 Nov 2013

Some states see health plan enrollment surge

While the balky federal website has made enrollment difficult for residents of 36 states, tens of thousands of consumers are signing up for coverage in places like California, Connecticut and Kentucky, which have functional websites, reports the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, states and advocacy groups are tweaking their marketing. In Maryland, for instance, radio and TV ads encourage residents to call 211, rather than go to a website, to get coverage.

20 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 19, 2013

Today's headlines include news that Obama administration officials were warned about the possibility of website difficulties months ago by an outside consulting firm.

19 Nov 2013

What's the Healthcare.gov goal? 80 percent enrollment success rate

Obama administration officials are quietly hoping 80 percent of users will be able to enroll in health insurance plans on the federal health law's healthcare.gov website once it is fixed, The Washington Post reports. In the meantime, other website snags come to light -- a lack of Spanish-language materials and early alarm at some problems at rolling out the site.

19 Nov 2013

White House struggles to save health law

The Associated Press reports the president needs breakthroughs on three fronts: the cancellations and technology messes and the crisis in confidence among his own supporters. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports the White House is probing how the rollout flopped despite what they had believed was sufficient planning.

19 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Obamacare has resisted death throes before; website success stories from 3 governors; health law taking a toll on choice of doctors in Medicare Advantage

The first time Obamacare seemed finished, doomed, doornail-dead, the voters of Massachusetts played the would-be executioner. In January 2010, they sent a pickup-driving Republican to the Senate to fill Ted Kennedy's seat, apparently depriving the health care bill of its crucial 60th vote and sending Democrats scrambling for a Plan B. ... the deeper force at work, the reason that these near-death experiences keep happening, isn't a website or a broken presidential promise. It's a problem inherent to contemporary liberalism, which is that liberals' proudest achievement, the modern welfare state, tends to resist, corrupt and baffle their efforts at comprehensive reform (Ross Douthat, 11/16).

19 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 18, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the political implications of the healthcare.gov difficulties as well continued coverage of reaction to President Barack Obama's policy cancellation fix.

18 Nov 2013