Consumer advocates and Obama administration officials started working Tuesday to sign up millions of consumers for Obamacare coverage as the fourth open enrollment period kicks off.

U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc on Wednesday raised the prospect of smaller participation in the individual Obamacare exchanges in 2018, saying it would have a market-by-market strategy that hinges on 2017 profitability.

Advocates and opponents are gearing up for a life or death battle over a problematic Affordable Care Act in 2017, and the idea of a government option in health insurance is gaining some traction among Democratic legislators.

Millions of Americans are finding out this month that the price of their health insurance is going up next year — as it did this year, last year, and most of the years before that.

Starting Tuesday, Nov. 1, through Jan. 31, Californians who don’t have employer-based health insurance or Medicare can sign up for health insurance through the state’s marketplace, Covered California. That’s the easy news.

Health policy has become a highly charged partisan issue in American politics. Each party claims its policies will improve the quality, efficiency, and availability of American health care, while the other party’s policies will destroy what is good about the health care system that Americans enjoy now.