National health spending grew 3.6 percent in 2013, the lowest annual increase since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began tracking the statistic in 1960, officials said Wednesday.

Just two weeks into Obamacare's second open-enrollment period, more than 765,000 people have selected insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday.

Health care systems experimenting with a new way of being paid by Medicare would have three extra years before they could be punished for poor performance, the federal government proposed Monday.

As the California Legislature began its new session on Monday, first-time and returning lawmakers introduced a number of health-related bills, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports (Rosenhall/White, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 12/1).

Exactly what would happen to the Affordable Care Act if the Supreme Court invalidates tax credits in the three dozen states where the federal government runs the program?

A surge in health insurer competition appears to be helping restrain premium increases in hundreds of counties next year, with prices dropping in many places where newcomers are offering the least expensive plans, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of federal premium records.