Julie Rovner

The online marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act so people can compare health plans and sign up for health insurance are scheduled to open for business on Oct. 1. As the date approaches, opponents of the administration's health law are ratcheting up their efforts to stop it.

As health costs keep rising, many firms are trying to run their benefits programs as leanly as possible. For some, that means not paying the claims of spouses who work for other companies. It costs more to insure the typical spouse than the typical employee, one analyst says.

Can I wait to sign up for health insurance under Obamacare until I get sick? Do young people really have to buy it? And isn't Obamacare really a negative term? Julie Rovner answers these and more as opening day looms for the new health exchanges.

Federal lawmakers have been unable to solve a widely acknowledged problem with the formula used to set the pay for doctors who treat Medicare patients. Now, after a series of temporary patches, a bipartisan solution may be at hand.

With less than a month until the launch of the new health care exchanges, polls show people are still mightily confused about how the Affordable Care Act works. So the Obama administration is bringing out the big guns, including former president and explainer-in-chief Bill Clinton.

A RAND Corp. analysis says the health overhaul won't lead to big price increases for insurance. In some states individual policies may cost a bit more, while in others the premiums will decline or remain about the same.

The most common reason people said defunding is a bad idea boiled down to a feeling that using the budget process to undermine a law on the books isn't the way government in this country should work.

Think buying health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will be confusing? You're not alone. NPR listeners asked questions that have been bugging them about student status options and penalties. Julie Rovner, NPR's health policy correspondent, explains how it's going to work.

Less than eight weeks before the official launch of the new health care marketplaces, the Obama administration is ramping up efforts to encourage people to sign up. But some opponents want young people to pay a fine rather than sign up for health insurance, hoping to harm the new law.

For employees on Capitol Hill, the new health law left some ambiguity as to who will be required to switch from federal worker insurance to health exchanges. For those who will have to switch, it's unclear what sort of employer contributions they can expect into the future.

The Obama administration says it has solved a thorny issue that threatened the health insurance coverage of more than 10,000 congressional staffers. But critics say the administration is overstepping its legal authority.

Are employers already cutting hours and jobs to avoid pending requirements of the Affordable Care Act? As with so many of the issues surrounding Obamacare, the answers are all over the map.