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Many Americans with low incomes now have health coverage they couldn’t have gotten before this year under the act, widely called Obamacare. But their sheer numbers are straining some health-care systems that already don’t have enough doctors and staff. And the new Medicaid enrollees can challenge medical practices’ bottom lines in ways that lead them to turn some away. Almost nine million additional Americans now have coverage through Medicaid as a result of changes that took effect this year under the 2010 act. (Radnofsky, 11/13)

Millions of low-income Americans are expected to join Medicaid after the second sign-up drive begins on Saturday for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, widely called Obamacare. That will further expand Medicaid–already the nation’s largest health plan–which lawmakers chose as the vehicle for covering around a third of the nation’s uninsured. (11/13)

Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is optimistic that with midterm elections now over, more states will consider Medicaid expansion in 2015. (Villacorta, 11/13)

Next month, Gov. Gary Herbert will present the details of his alternative Medicaid plan to skeptical members of Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature. After consulting with legislative leaders this week, Herbert said Thursday that he’s decided to roll out the plan in December to lawmakers on a health committee meeting shortly before the full Legislature returns for business in 2015. (Price, 11/13)

Gov.-elect Greg Abbott’s pick for Texas secretary of state voted for a local resolution last year endorsing the expansion of Medicaid — a central tenet of the federal Affordable Care Act that Abbott fiercely campaigned against. In a phone interview, Carlos Cascos, a Republican judge from Cameron County, said that as secretary of state he was “not just going to go along to get along” with Abbott, and that on health care issues there would be “policy disagreement” among Republican officials. (Walters, 11/13)