Julie Rovner

The Obama administration is again delaying a part of the Affordable Care Act that requires most companies to provide employees with health insurance. This time, smallish firms — those with fewer than 100 workers but more than 49 — get a reprieve until 2016.

A reproductive health think tank says the recent surge of state laws intended to restrict the procedure is likely not the reason. Instead, it cites the economy and long-acting contraceptives. But there's also a wild card.

California Rep. Henry Waxman, elected in 1974 in Watergate's aftermath, has announced his retirement. The Democrat leaves behind one of the most substantive legislative records in the House's recent history, and was instrumental in the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

"Obamacare just isn't working," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on the Senate floor Monday afternoon. So he and two of his more influential Republican colleagues have proposed yet another plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act.

UPS and other employers looking to reduce spending are cutting back on health care coverage for employees' spouses. But a new study shows that if every employer starts doing this, then nobody wins.

Much has been made of the need for young, healthy people to sign up if the Affordable Care Act is going to work. But it may be that the key word here is not young, but healthy. Insurance companies get paid more for older people, regardless of their health.

The Supreme Court's decision not to review a lower court ruling on Arizona's "fetal pain" law has abortion rights advocates hailing the move as a signal the court isn't inclined to take on the 40-year precedent of Roe v. Wade.

The high court declined the state's request to review a lower court ruling that struck down its ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. That effectively blocks the law permanently, since the appeals court found it unconstitutional.

Dental coverage is a required benefit for children under the Affordable Care Act. But it's not turning out to be quite that simple. For one thing, there are no federal subsidies to help pay for stand-alone dental policies.

Health care costs grew at 3.7 percent in 2012, the fourth year of a trend of smaller annual increases. The Obama administration says that the Affordable Care Act is a factor. But the actuaries who wrote the report beg to differ, saying the recession is a more likely cause.