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Amid growing questions over the future of insurance exchanges, the head of California’s marketplace said the nation’s largest health insurer should take responsibility for nearly $1 billion in losses and stop blaming the federal health law. In a blistering critique, Covered California’s executive director, Peter Lee, said UnitedHealth Group Inc. made a series of blunders on rates and networks that led to a $475 million loss last year on individual policies across the country. The company estimates a similar exchange-related loss of $500 million for this year. “Instead of saying we screwed up, they said Obamacare is the problem and we may not play any more,” Lee said. (Terhune, 2/3)

Starting in 2016, the federal health law requires small employers to offer their full-time workers health insurance. In anticipation of the change, some fast-food restaurants looked to get around the law by making more workers part time. Now some owners are rethinking that approach. (Dembosky, 2/2)

Most insurers have embraced the law now that it has survived two major U.S. Supreme Court threats. The law has helped many insurers financially through the tacit encouragement of products such as high-deductible plans, although the exchange market is a work in progress. But many are still trying to figure out how to pivot beyond what was the core of their business for so long: employer-based plans and holding down medical claims. Hospital consolidation also has raised alarms in the industry, with insurers arguing that larger health systems are jacking up prices at will. ... As a result, insurers are shifting their attention to taxpayer-funded coverage and finding ways to grow outside the bounds of traditional health plans, such as selling technology services. (Herman, 1/30)