Julie Rovner

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 vast majority of American surveyed about how health insurance works didn't understand some of the most basic concepts. They were also unable, in most cases, to figure out how much a hypothetical hospital stay would cost them.

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.