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The White House names Zients to be Heatlhcare.gov fixer

Jeffrey D. Zients, who previously served as the Office of Management and Budget chief performance officer, is already a tested Administration troubleshooter.

24 Oct 2013

Sen. Rubio readies bill to delay insurance mandate penalty

Sen. Marco Rubio is proposing a bill that would delay imposing penalties on people who don't have health insurance until six months after the Government Accountability Office has certified the federal website is functional. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, is calling on President Obama to extended open enrollment beyond March 31, 2014 and to waive penalties for those who are unable to sign up because of technical problems.

24 Oct 2013

Ohio opponents of Medicaid expansion file lawsuit

A group of six Ohio lawmakers, along with two anti-abortion groups, brought suit Tuesday, challenging a legislative board's move to approve that state's expansion of Medicaid under the health law. Other media outlets look at the estimated 5 million Americans who will go without insurance because their states are not expanding the federal-state program for the poor.

24 Oct 2013

Defending health exchange's rollout puts Sebelius in the hot seat

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is being called to Capitol Hill by Republican lawmakers who want her to explain what went wrong with the Oct. 1 unveiling of healthcare.gov. She is also facing calls for her resignation. Still, according to Politico, her job is safe.

24 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 23, 2013

Today's headlines include continuing coverage about the problems with the healthcare.gov website, how Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is in the hot seat and how the White House has called in reinforcements -- a glitch czar.

23 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: 'Unforced error' on marketplace website raises questions about administration's handling of health issues; Obama's 'desperate sales pitch;' GOP's faux concerns for exchanges

Anyone who supports the plan to cover Americans who couldn't get health insurance has to hope the administration quickly gets it right. But you can't help but wonder: Where was all this frantic effort in the three-and-a-half years from the time Obama signed the health law to the day the exchanges opened on Oct. 1?

From Quest Diagnostics 23 Oct 2013

Homeless people are extremely frequent users of health services, finds research

Single women who are homeless visit a hospital Emergency Department an average of more than twice a year, 13 times more often than women in the general population, new research has found.

23 Oct 2013

Finger pointing surrounds health care website woes

News outlets examine some of the technology issues, as well as political dynamics, that contributed to the launch difficulties.

23 Oct 2013

Vows to fix insurance website, but no details offered

The Obama administration has been tight-lipped about the cause of the website problems, who has signed on to fix them and what their timetable might be. News outlets report on ideas advanced by technology experts and explore the practical and political ramifications of delayed enrollment.

23 Oct 2013

Sebelius to testify on Healthcare.Gov problems

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to answer lawmakers' questions about the troubled rollout of the health law's exchange website as early as next week. Her staff had declined a request to have her testify Thursday citing scheduling conflicts.

23 Oct 2013

Obama admits Healthcare.gov problems, but says health law is bigger than the Web site

In a Rose Garden speech, President Barack Obama said there was "no excuse" for the bungled rollout of the online health insurance marketplaces and promised that the difficulties would be ironed out.

23 Oct 2013

Fact checking demint on Medicare/Obamacare comparison and president on premium cost

In making the case that the cost of the health-care law was sure to grow, [Jim DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation] cited some figures about Medicare that struck us as a bit fishy. ... There's no question that any new social program often has unintended costs. ... DeMint's figures are ridiculously overstated. He preferred to use trumped-up stats rather than refer to the concrete examples (Kessler, 10/22).

23 Oct 2013

Despite glitch-ridden rollout, health insurers not panicking yet

Media outlets document the pace of enrollment through health insurance marketplaces in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Minnesota and Washington state.

23 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 22, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the Obama administration's plans to address the problems with healthcare.gov.

22 Oct 2013

Psychotherapy: New treatment choice for anorexia nervosa

A large-scale study has now shown that adult women with anorexia whose disorder is not too severe can be treated successfully on an out-patient basis. Even after conclusion of therapy, they continue to make significant weight gains.

22 Oct 2013

President says website problems are 'unacceptable"; urges insurance shoppers to keep trying

President Obama said Monday that problems with the new health care website are unacceptable, but argued that the law overall will benefit millions of Americans. While Healthcare.gov "hasn't worked as as smooth as it was supposed to have worked," Obama said in a White House speech that thousands of once-uninsured Americans have signed up for coverage.

22 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: HHS officials must tell Congress, citizens what is happening to marketplaces; 'rate shock' didn't materialize; problems with medical credit cards

The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn't working. But who knows? ... Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is even refusing to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing this coming Thursday. ... The department is also refusing to make available lower-level officials who might detail the source or sources of this debacle (10/18).

22 Oct 2013

'Tech Surge' mounted to fix healthcare.gov

The Obama administration promised Sunday to enlist experts both inside and outside the government to solve the problems that have crippled healthcare.gov and caused consumers frustration as they attempt to shop for coverage. But some federal contractors worry the system may be weeks away from operating smoothly.

22 Oct 2013

Republicans see new political battleground because of bumpy health exchange rollout

Though the health law came through the most recent budget battle unscathed, its opponents view the problems with the website as a potential opportunity -- both in terms of the fight to derail the law and as an election issue for the upcoming campaign cycle.

22 Oct 2013

States shaking health law tree to deal with what falls out

States are grappling with the realities of the health law: Illinois is using social media to field consumer worries over the rollout of the law even as the law brings more money -- and more stress -- to the state. In the meantime, the differences between exchange launches in Washington state and Oregon are examined.

22 Oct 2013