Author: Kalup Alexander

About 8.7 million customers had selected a plan on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange as of Jan. 9, according to a government update Wednesday that showed only a slight uptick in consumer interest between crucial deadlines to get covered under Obamacare in 2016.

In a battle between two Capitol lobbying heavyweights — health insurers and pharmaceutical companies — the latter scored a major win Tuesday, beating back a measure designed to provide more transparency on prescription drug pricing.

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act's so-called "Cadillac" tax won a major victory last month when President Obama delayed its implementation for two years via a spending package.

Sign up for health care coverage or pay the price. That’s the message from Covered California officials, who urged consumers Wednesday to sign up for Obamacare coverage by the Jan. 31 deadline or face stiff tax penalties.

Even with subsidies to make coverage more affordable, many people who buy health insurance on the marketplaces spend more than 10 percent of their income on premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket payments, a recent study found. Among those hit hardest, the researchers said, are people who spend nearly a quarter of their income on health care expenses.

It's a rare tax that gets health insurers, state officials and consumer advocates to all sing Kuumbaya.

On Monday, CMS announced that 21 organizations -- including three in California -- initially will participate in its Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model, MedPage Today reports (Frieden, MedPage Today, 1/11).

California lawmakers are working to revive a stalled bill (AB 463) that aimed to increase prescription drug cost transparency, KQED's "State of Health" reports (Dembosky, "State of Health," KQED, 1/12).

Promising workers lower health insurance premiums for losing weight did nothing to help them take off the pounds, a recent study found. At the end of a year, obese workers had lost less than 1.5 pounds on average, statistically no different than the minute average gain of a tenth of a pound for workers who weren’t offered a financial incentive to lose weight.

About 15 state attorneys general have joined the Justice Department's probe of two big insurance mergers, according to people familiar with the matter, increasing the scrutiny on proposed deals that would reduce the number of nationwide health insurers to three from five.