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For naysayers of the Affordable Care Act, the fall may be providing them with a "told you so" moment. The exchanges set up by the health care law were designed to bring choice and transparency to the process of buying health care insurance for Americans who need individual plans. Part of the idea was that the exchanges would sign up young Americans, and those healthier types would help even out the high treatment costs for the exchanges' sickest patients. Reality, however, has given those plans a more sober diagnosis. (Picchi, 11/19)

While President Barack Obama's health care law requires insurance companies to cover some over-the-counter medications and devices, a small catch may be causing some patients to forgo care or spend more money than needed: You have to get a doctor's prescription to avoid out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers cover 10 so-called essential health benefits, some of which can come with no copay, including methods of contraception and smoking cessation tools approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as breast pumps for new moms. ... But because some of these medications or devices are also available over the counter, whether or how health insurance plans can step in to cover their costs can be unclear. (Leonard, 11/19)

Under the Affordable Care Act, almost everyone is required to be covered under a health insurance plan, or pay a penalty. And that penalty is set to rise steeply this year. (Martin, 11/20)

More than 5,400 new customers have bought private insurance through the state’s health insurance exchange since Nov. 1, a group that includes a larger share of young adults and people who qualify for subsidized coverage than the current customer base. (Levin Becker, 11/19)

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber's lawyer, Janet Hoffman, did not expect a recent hearing concerning a hush-hush federal influence-peddling investigation of her client would be public. But it was, and now it's on YouTube. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing gives new insight into Hoffman's fight to stop the state from turning over emails from the former governor's personal account to federal grand jury. The fight is relevant not just to the investigation of Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. Many of the same arguments are set for a Friday hearing in the court fight between the state and Oracle America over who's to blame for Cover Oregon. (Budnick, 11/19)