The impact of ObamaCare on doctors and patients, companies inside and outside the health sector, and American workers and taxpayers

Momentum is building for a House vote on the rarest of bills: bipartisan legislation to reform President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. The Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees, or PACE Act would tweak the employer mandate to shield larger businesses from stricter requirements.

A year and a half after the Affordable Care Act brought widespread reforms to the U.S. healthcare system, Chicago’s Cook County Health & Hospitals System has made its first profit in 180 years.

Seven hundred miles south, the fortunes of Atlanta’s primary public hospital, Grady Health System, haven’t improved, and it remains as dependent as ever on philanthropy and county funding to stay afloat.

Policymakers in Medicaid expansion states likely will try to wring some cash from hospitals starting in 2017 when the federal government no longer pays the full tab for the coverage expansion, experts say.

The prime contractor hired to build Maryland’s flawed online health exchange will pay $45 million to the state and federal governments to avoid a lawsuit over its performance, Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Tuesday.

At the paper mill in Longview, Wash., Kurt Gallow and his wife, Brenda, are worrying about his company’s proposed new health care plan, which would require workers to pay as much as $6,000 toward their families’ medical bills.

After the Supreme Court’s bizarre decision validating the IRS’ illegal Obamacare rule, Congress is opening a new chapter in the debate over the health overhaul law by focusing on oversight and investigations to protect taxpayers and the rule of law.

Washington’s notorious revolving door was in full swing again last week as the health insurance industry snagged another top federal official to help it get what it wants out of lawmakers and regulators.

The Obamacare contraception mandate was a major issue in the 2012 presidential campaign, and the left may soon be pushing for taxpayer-funded abortafacient drugs for young girls as part of the 2016 campaign strategy.

The issue appeared earlier this week in the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” blog. At issue is a growing debate arising out of Colorado.

More than a dozen states that opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen enrollments surge way beyond projections, raising concerns that the added costs will strain their budgets when federal aid is scaled back starting in two years.

Some lawmakers warn the price of expanding the health care program for poor and lower-income Americans could mean less money available for other state services, including education.

What’s behind the huge premium increases on the Obamacare exchanges?

Supporters and opponents offer wildly different explanations and theories. They all pore over the data and get into the details of who is signing up, what the risk pools look like, and other things actuaries find exciting.