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President Obama's health-care reform law made government health insurance available to more people living in poverty or near poverty by expanding Medicaid. The hope was to improve people's physical health, but new research shows an important effect on financial health: The law has helped many poor Americans pay off the collection agent. The analysis, conducted by a team of university researchers and members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, estimates that those who signed up for Medicaid under the law reduced their collection balances by $600 to $1,000 each. (Ehrenfreund, 4/20)

State Medicaid expansions under Obamacare have improved low-income Americans' insurance coverage, increased their doctor visits and enhanced detection of chronic health conditions, which could lead to improvements in health, a new study suggests. (Pallarito, 4/20)

The Obama administration and religiously affiliated employers in a final round of legal briefs Wednesday moved no closer to a compromise for covering contraception in workers’ insurance plans, likely leaving it to the eight-member Supreme Court to settle the dispute. The justices in an unusual step had requested supplemental briefs from both sides on a potential solution as they sought a way to avoid a potential 4-4 split following the February death of the court’s ninth justice, Antonin Scalia. The high court is reviewing a dispute over the 2010 health-care law requirement that employers provide birth-control coverage for workers. (Radnofsky, 4/20)