Affordable Care Act

Medicare has tied incentive payments and penalties to two-dozen quality measurements, including surveys of patient satisfaction and death rates. More than 1,200 hospitals are receiving bonuses. But more hospitals are being paid less for each Medicare patient they treat for the year that began Oct. 1.

The Obama administration is plugging its health care plan by saying that half of young, single people can buy health coverage for $50 a month or less. A closer look at the claim finds that it's more like a third of single, uninsured, young adults who would get a deal that good.

Government's top tech officials — including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park — showed up on Capitol Hill to give a status report of the troubled HealthCare.gov system. As the administration unveils enrollment numbers, the tech officials outlined technology metrics of progress.

A hairdresser in Alaska is one of the first people to get health insurance through HealthCare.gov. The 37-year-old woman has a chronic thyroid problem, so she's thrilled to find affordable coverage. Insurers are bracing for sick people like her to be among the first entering the market.

A small business owner and her husband expect to save big on health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Their monthly health insurance bill will drop by more than half once the policy they're buying on the Colorado health exchange takes effect.

With the federal insurance exchanges still a mess, some uninsured people are turning to local groups to figure out how and where to purchase insurance. In Florida, a lack of coordination among different agencies is leaving room for dubious outfits to enter the scene.

The success of the Affordable Care Act rests in part on getting young, healthy people to purchase coverage. But despite marketing attempts to reach them, some young people feel they're too healthy or cash-strapped to buy something they say they're unlikely to need.

President Obama repeatedly said that anyone who likes their current health insurance policy would be able to keep it. But insurers have sent hundreds of thousands of cancellation notices to people who buy their own coverage — and some of them face significantly higher costs to get new policies under the Affordable Care Act.

For Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, the big question was not why isn't the HealthCare.gov website working. It was why are people being told their insurance is being cancelled when President Obama said they can keep it, no matter what. Administration officials said the new coverage will be better.

After yet more problems over the weekend, HealthCare.gov, the federal site for people to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act, seems to be making incremental improvements. Probably the best news on the health care front is that premiums for Medicare will not increase next year.