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As the Affordable Care Act's third open-enrollment season kicks off Sunday, health care experts around the nation will be closely watching whether Covered California gains more traction -- and signups -- than it did in 2015. The Golden State's health care exchange was the country's darling in the first year of Obamacare, getting 1.1 million uninsured people to enroll in private plans in 2014. But that total inched up to only 1.3 million this year. (Seipel, 10/31)

The head of California’s health insurance exchange toured Los Angeles by bus Sunday, seeking to publicize the Affordable Care Act’s potential benefits among Southern Californians, many of them Latino, who officials say have failed to take advantage of the law. On the first day of this year’s open-enrollment period for federally subsidized health plans, the tour’s first stop — in East L.A. at the nonprofit care provider AltaMed Health Services — previewed what state officials say will be an overarching strategy as they seek to boost enrollment in the third year of the state-run marketplace, called Covered California. (Jamison, 11/1)

Residents will have three months during open enrollment to sign up for the exchange. Covered California has 1.3 million consumers, about 90% of whom receive subsidies to help cover their premiums. About 4 million Californians remain uninsured. Of those, officials estimate that 1.4 million would qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents, and 750,000 others would be eligible for subsidies toward private health insurance. (Sewell, 11/31)

Officials at Access Health CT, the state's health insurance exchange, plan to base their efforts to reach the uninsured more heavily on reaching "influencers," community leaders who hold sway with those who still haven't gotten coverage and can point them to a place to sign up. (Levin Becker, 11/2)

In rural Borden County, 12 people signed up for Obamacare this year. Livid over the government telling them they must buy something and loath to take anything that looks like a “handout,” the uninsured here are likely to stay that way. As Obamacare’s third open enrollment season began Sunday, this rock-solid conservative community of about 650 people offers a window into the challenges health law advocates face to expand coverage around the country. (Pradhan, 11/2)

Today begins the three-month open-enrollment period for marketplace coverage in 2016. An estimated 9.4 million to 11.4 million Americans are expected to sign up — and actually pay — for insurance through the marketplaces, which are entering their third year. Hundreds of thousands of uninsured and re-enrolling Ohioans have some important homework awaiting them. (Sutherly, 11/1)

Fewer health plan choices are being offered on the federal exchange, while PPOs, or preferred provider organization plans, for individuals and families have been drastically reduced or even have disappeared in some Texas markets. PPOs historically have been the most popular type of health insurance in Texas because they provide some out-of-network benefits and don’t require referrals to see specialists. (O'Hare, 10/30)

Customers can begin buying plans on HealthCare.gov starting on Nov. 1 and do so through Jan. 31, 2016. Rates for individual health plans went up an average of 7.5 percent nationally. Within that not-too-alarming average are outliers. Some states saw their average rate go down; others saw a big percentage leap from a reasonable starting price. For instance, Boise, Idaho, saw a 30 percent spike in premiums from about $210 to $273 a month. But Alaska is a special case. It has the highest premiums in the country, and it has seen some of the highest percentage increases over the past two years. That makes paying for insurance especially difficult for families like the Ebbessons. (Feidt, 10/30)

As the nation enters the third year of coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law, officials in Washington state say there are still hundreds of thousands of people who could be getting free or low-cost insurance. But they won't get that discount if they don't go online and check out Washington Healthplanfinder. (Blankinship, 10/31)

As the third year of Healthcare.gov gets underway, an estimated 90,000 people in the St. Louis region are still uninsured and eligible to buy health insurance on the federal marketplace, according to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Effort for AIDS counselors like Sade Singleton have spent the past few months leading up to enrollment doing outreach and health literacy presentations throughout the region. Last year, the nonprofit helped about 700 people sign up for health insurance in St. Louis. (Bouscaren, 1/1)

While still awaiting federal approval of the state's plan to expand Medicaid to tens of thousands of Montanans, health care officials have been busy working to get everything into place under the assumption it'll happen soon. ... Montana has requested the federal government approve a pair of waivers to federal insurance requirements by Sunday to coincide with the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace, although there is no approval deadline for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "We continue to be cautiously optimistic we will receive approval on our plan to bring our tax dollars back from the federal government and extend health insurance coverage to more than 70,000 Montanans," said Tim Crowe, Bullock's communications director. (Benoit, 11/1)