Affordable Care Act

A fiscal patch that Congress approved last month isn't big enough to keep the Children's Health Insurance Program afloat, according to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

Seven states saw a third or more of their hospitals punished under the federal health law's campaign against hospital-acquired conditions. Critics accuse some unscathed hospitals of gaming the system.

Despite an enrollment period that was half as long, nearly 9 million people have signed up for Affordable Care Act insurance for 2018 so far, about the same as last year.

Republicans tried last summer to expand the use of these tax-advantaged accounts that are linked to high-deductible health plans. But their expansion proposal didn't make it into the tax bill.

Shop around. That's the advice of health insurance navigators for people seeking health policies on the Affordable Care Act's state and federal exchanges. Premiums have climbed but so have subsidies.

A shorter enrollment period and big cuts in the federal budget for outreach are taking a toll, say those helping with health insurance sign-ups. Deadlines for most state exchanges are a little later.

Some knocks on the Affordable Care Act are ideological. Others are misunderstandings. People who make too much to qualify for subsidies to defray their mandated insurance purchases have suffered.

The federal funding of the program lapsed in September. States have been burning through leftover funds, or borrowing from other accounts, as they wait for Congress to act before the end of January.

Some people looking for 2018 insurance under the Affordable Care Act may have a little longer to sign up — for example, in states and U.S. territories hit by this year's hurricanes.

Even if the Republican from Maine can get her party to go along, her suggestions to bolster the individual insurance market may be too little, too late.

With enrollment funding tight, health plan navigators and assisters are getting creative about getting the word out and signing people up for Affordable Care Act plans.

Behavioral care is four times more likely to be out-of-network than medical or surgical care, a nationwide study shows. That can make treatment unaffordable even for people who have health insurance.