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For the second year in a row, California is posting robust initial numbers of legal residents signing up for health insurance under the nation's new health care law, according to figures released Wednesday. (Seipel, 12/10)

With less than a week until the deadline to buy individual health insurance that begins Jan. 1, experts say sign-ups are on course to hit or exceed the Obama administration’s projection of about 9 million enrollees in 2015. Several weeks into the second year of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges, about 1.5 million people have enrolled in coverage, according to data from state and federal exchanges. (Galewitz, 12/11)

California's insurance exchange said 48,950 new people signed up for Obamacare coverage during the first three weeks of open enrollment. The latest figures span Nov. 15 to Dec. 3, and state officials said about 160,000 people have also applied for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents. (Terhune, 12/10)

Oregon health insurers on Wednesday urged state lawmakers to act quickly in dissolving Cover Oregon and transferring its authority to other state agencies. Insurance companies need certainty as they plan their 2016 insurance rates, which must be filed with the state in the spring, lobbyists for several companies told a legislative committee formed to oversee the potential unwinding of the health insurance exchange. (Cooper, 12/10)

About a quarter of Maryland residents who need to re-enroll in the state’s health insurance marketplace to get their correct subsidies by Jan. 1 have done so, Maryland officials said Wednesday. Now, they are urging the rest of roughly 66,000 individuals who enrolled earlier to sign up again before next week’s deadline to get coverage by the first of the year. (12/10)