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It’s a sign of how convoluted our health care system is when it’s hard to tell the horror stories from the success stories. When I got an email from Joe Hatley of Conover, a small town about 45 miles northwest of Charlotte, I thought I was reading the former. Hatley said he’d enjoyed my reports on Luis Lang, an uninsured Fort Mill man who needs costly surgery to save his sight. Like Lang, Hatley found himself out of work, sick and uninsured. Both men’s stories highlight gaps in the system in North and South Carolina. But Hatley, who is recovering from a potentially deadly gastrointestinal infection, emphasizes the happy ending to his tale: His hospitalization was covered, even though he waited almost two weeks to see a doctor until his insurance kicked in. (Helms, 5/28)

About half the states have taken steps to insulate midsize companies from a looming Obamacare requirement that a wide range of groups say could significantly hike those companies’ premiums when it takes effect next year. (Pradhan, 5/28)

Since Obamacare took effect, roughly 16.5 million more people have gained health insurance. And while the health care law is objectively succeeding in its key goal of expanding access to coverage to millions of Americans, those gains come with enormous costs to taxpayers — including inordinately steep ongoing administrative costs, according to a new study. (Ehley, 5/28)