health care

Florida has resisted the Affordable Care Act from the get-go, so one of the state's large insurers and Spanish-language media have done most of the outreach to Latinos.

The Obama administration is again delaying a part of the Affordable Care Act that requires most companies to provide employees with health insurance. This time, smallish firms — those with fewer than 100 workers but more than 49 — get a reprieve until 2016.

Heroin overdose deaths have increased significantly in the U.S. over the past five years. Experts point to aggressive prescribing of opioid drugs for pain about 15 years ago as a reason why. Heroin users often say their addiction began with exposure to painkillers like OxyContin.

Some conservatives say the health care law is here to stay. They're urging Republicans to shift their focus from repealing it to changing parts they don't like. The Tea Party wing calls that capitulation. And it's pushing primary challengers against Republicans they say are soft on repeal.

Much has been made of the need for young, healthy people to sign up if the Affordable Care Act is going to work. But it may be that the key word here is not young, but healthy. Insurance companies get paid more for older people, regardless of their health.

A poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that nearly 1 in 5 Latinos say diabetes is the major health concern for themselves and their family. In East Los Angeles, where obesity and diabetes are common, community activists are committed to turning the problem around.

An Illinois case examines whether states may recognize a union for workers who care for disabled adults in their homes instead of state institutions, and whether non-union members must pay for a contract they benefit from.

Michigan is one of only a handful of Republican-led states that is expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. It did it by forging a plan that worked for Republicans, Democrats and business interests, as well as doctors and hospitals.

In a state where politicians have adamantly rejected the Affordable Care Act, the area around Atlanta has a growing number of health tech companies. Many are seeing business benefits from the law. Companies that once would have been a hard sell are seeing more sales and customers.