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The sign-up period for coverage under the federal health law will start Oct. 1 and run through Dec. 15 next year, and every year after, the Obama administration proposed in a rule released late Friday. The timing of the health law’s enrollment window has been the subject of debate. In the first year of the law’s exchanges, it started Oct. 1, 2013 and ran through March 31, 2014. This year, it started Nov. 15 and will run through Feb. 15, 2015. Some academics and supporters of the law have criticized the decision to schedule the period around the holidays, when consumers’ attention and wallets are stretched. Tax preparers have also said they could help more people sign up if the period included the spring. (Radnofsky, 11/21)

Obamacare customers who choose to re-enroll in insurance plans would automatically default to cheaper coverage during sign-up periods, protecting them from price increases, under rules proposed by the U.S. government. The rules, which wouldn’t apply until the 2016 benefit year, were released yesterday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The changes, which also include requirements for insurers on the transparency of their rate increases, are open to public comment. (Harrison, 11/22)

HHS is weighing a change to its automatic renewal policy for consumers who take no action during Obamacare open enrollment so that an individual might be defaulted into a cheaper plan than what they had. (Pradhan, 11/21)

The Obama administration took another step to close what many see as a health-law loophole that allows large employers to offer medical plans without hospital coverage and bars their workers from subsidies to buy their own insurance. “It has come to our attention that certain group health plan designs that provide no coverage of inpatient hospital services are being promoted,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in proposed rules issued late Friday. Under the new standard, companies with at least 50 workers “must provide substantial coverage of both inpatient hospital services and physician services” to meet the Affordable Care Act’s threshold for a “minimum value” of coverage, the agency said. (Hancock, 11/24)

The Obama administration is seeking to tighten how insurers segregate funds for abortion coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges after a scathing government investigation found the rules have been widely ignored. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided additional detail Friday about how health plans should go about charging women for abortion coverage that is handled separately from their other health benefits obtained on the exchanges. (Viebeck, 11/21)

A group of Wall Street analysts predicted Friday that enrollment in health law insurance plans will be higher than the 9 million projected by the Obama administration because insurers are aggressively courting new customers and more small businesses are likely to send workers to the online exchanges in 2015.(Appleby, 11/21)

As you’ve probably heard, Obamacare requires most U.S. residents to obtain some form of health coverage, either from a job, a private insurance company or a government program like Medicaid. Failing to do so could mean taking a hit on your taxes. There’s been a lot of attention paid to the $95 tax penalty for people who are uninsured this year. But in reality, few people will pay that little, and high-income households could owe thousands of dollars when they file their 2014 taxes. Plus, the minimum penalty more than triples for the 2015 tax year. (Young, 11/21)

Obamacare’s exchanges have officially been open for business for nearly a week, but some uninsured people are still either confused, unaware or dismissive of some of the key provisions of the law. (Ehley, 11/23)