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The numbers are in: Obamacare reduced the share of Americans without health insurance last year to 10.4 percent, down from 13.3 percent the year before. That represents 8.8 million fewer people who risked financial ruin if they needed significant medical care. Most of the improvement came from people getting coverage through Medicaid or the state insurance exchanges. The figures put to rest the notion that Obamacare would cause more people to lose coverage than gain it. But U.S. health care is by no means fixed. Three substantial improvements are still needed. (9/17)

Beyond the headline numbers showing a substantial decline in the number of Americans without health insurance, today’s Census Bureau report contained some important details, including: The employer health insurance market still looks strong. Enrollment numbers from the federal government have told us that millions of Americans signed up for private health insurance in the new Obamacare marketplaces. But some skeptics had worried that those sign-ups weren’t uninsured people, but instead previously insured people whose employers had stopped offering coverage once government-subsidized options were available. ... Before today, it has been really hard to know for sure. ... The report found that the number of Americans with employer coverage held steady — there was no statistically significant change between 2013 and 2014. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 9/16)

The U.S. Census Bureau just released its latest numbers on health insurance, showing a spike in the share of Americans with coverage. But there’s still a sizable chunk of the population that has high rates of uninsurance: older millennials, a.k.a. the “young invincibles,” a nickname that refers to their supposedly hubristic attitude that they don’t need health insurance because they’ll never get sick. (Catherine Rampell, 9/16)

On the other hand, one of the most important, positive and striking findings from today’s report is the drop in the number of Americans lacking health coverage, a clear sign of the Affordable Care Act at work. Last year, 8.8 million more people got coverage, leading to yet another decline in the uninsured rate, from 13.3 percent in 2013 to 10.4 percent in 2014. That’s a record low for these data, and a comparison using a range of health coverage surveys demonstrates that these are the largest single-year declines on record, with data back to 1987. (Jared Bernstein, 9/16)

[H]ere’s where the [Wall Street Journal] article is mistaken. While a Medicare-for-all program may cost $15 trillion over 10 years, this proposal would eliminate all payments made by Americans and businesses to health-insurance companies. At a time when the U.S. spends substantially more per capita on health care than does any other country on earth, a single-payer health-care program would substantially lower our total health-care costs and would guarantee health care to all Americans. This approach would end the international embarrassment of the U.S. being the only major country on earth that doesn’t already do this. For The Wall Street Journal to ignore the enormous savings that Medicare-for-all would bring to our wildly inefficient and dysfunctional health-care system is irresponsible. (Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 9/17)

Herbert says he saw that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — one of the GOP candidates — said recently that, if elected president, he would "light a fire under Congress" to repeal the reform law by signing "an executive order that will pull back the special deal President Obama put in place for Congress." ... Herbert asks: "Doesn't Congress already have to live under the Affordable Care Act?" Nope. At least if they don't mind paying more for health insurance. (David Lazarus, 9/16)

General Assembly conservatives who dismissed the thousands of citizens who came to demonstrate against their anti-labor, anti-middle-class agenda may attack Obamacare at their peril. For despite all that Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders did to frustrate those who wanted and needed health insurance they could obtain only through federal health care exchanges – the state declined to set up its own marketplace – North Carolina remains the state with the fourth-highest ACA enrollment. New figures show nearly 460,000 people are insured thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Without this insurance, they’d be left to long waits in emergency rooms and a catch-as-catch-can health care of illnesses that need maintenance and regular scrutiny from doctors. (9/15)

Risperdal is a billion-dollar antipsychotic medicine with real benefits — and a few unfortunate side effects. It can cause strokes among the elderly. And it can cause boys to grow large, pendulous breasts; one boy developed a 46DD bust. Yet Johnson & Johnson marketed Risperdal aggressively to the elderly and to boys while allegedly manipulating and hiding the data about breast development. J&J got caught, pleaded guilty to a crime and has paid more than $2 billion in penalties and settlements. But that pales next to some $30 billion in sales of Risperdal around the world. (Nicholas Kristof, 9/17)

There can be no solution to the nation’s long-term fiscal imbalances that does not involve pruning Social Security and Medicare. The sacrifices involved need only be modest for the vast majority of seniors — and none for the small minority who are poor — though the longer we wait, the higher the cost. (Charles Lane, 9/16)

Every hour, more than one Wisconsin resident dies of cancer, and that rate will increase if Medicare patients aren't able to access medical care. Yet some in Washington could soon jeopardize access by slashing funding for Medicare Part B — which covers treatments such as cancer drugs and outpatient chemotherapy. Such funding cuts to Medicare Part B would force many rural cancer clinics to close, depriving Medicare patients from access to lifesaving treatments, such as chemotherapy. Wisconsin's representatives in Congress should follow the lead of their colleagues Ron Kind and Paul Ryan in opposing actions that harm Part B and risk patients' health. (Gregg Silberg, 9/16)

Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger’s office called Wednesday with a piece of good news: the state will resume payments to providers of Early Intervention services to developmentally disabled infants and toddlers. That’s one of the programs I’ve been telling you fell through the cracks after the state started operating without a budget on July 1. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration determined the program, which it was already targeting for major cuts, wasn’t covered by any of the existing court orders and consent decrees that are keeping most of the rest of state government functioning. So they stopped paying the people who work with disabled kids, putting the whole program in danger of collapse. Parents were up in arms. (Mark Brown, 9/15)

Nurses unite! Take back your stethoscopes! The country's nurses are pushing back against "The View" and the hosts who denigrated the work of nurses generally and Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson, in particular. Social media is full of anger at Joy Behar and co-host Michelle Collins for comments made on the ABC show. As the world now knows, during the talent portion of the pageant, Johnson, who is from Windsor, wore a stethoscope and her nurse's scrubs while giving a monologue about her career as a health worker. Collins found Johnson's bit "hilarious." Under the hashtag "#nursesunite" a typical comment directed at the show and the host (@TheView @JoyVBehar) read, "I save lives. What do you do?" (9/16)