HCR Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama’s advisers deliberately crafted his signature health-care law to fulfill his oft-repeated promise: if you like your insurance, you can keep it. Even with that provision, Obama administration officials knew by June 2010 that as many as 10 million people with individual insurance probably would be thrown off existing plans anyway.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Millions of Americans are getting their health insurance cancelled under the Affordable Care Act and the Obama administration has known for about three years that this would happen, NBC News is reporting. Between half and three quarters of 14 million consumers who buy health insurance individually will receive a cancellation letter or its equivalent in the next year because their current policies don't meet the standards laid out by the new law.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The rocky debut of the insurance exchanges at the heart of President Barack Obama’s health-care law poses risks to his political agenda and the activist role for government that he has championed for his second term.White House officials say they expect a surge in online enrollment to begin in mid-November, meaning the administration may have only about three weeks to fix the flaws before negative public perceptions about the new program begin to harden.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Obama administration said Friday that it would fix problems in the federal health insurance marketplace by Nov. 30, just two weeks before the deadline to sign up for coverage to replace health insurance policies being canceled because they do not meet new federal standards.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In the face of projected doctor shortages and debate about the future of medicine, a record number of students applied to, and started, medical school this year. About 20,000 students enrolled in medical school in 2013, around 2.8% more than the year before, according to the data distributed by the Association of American Medical Colleges on Thursday. First-time applications were also up by almost 6%. Osteopathic medical schools saw a continued surge in their new student pool, with an 11.1% growth in enrollment, according to the Association of American Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. What is the trend in enrollment in Chiropractic Colleges?

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Obama administration said Wednesday night that it will give Americans who buy health insurance through the new online marketplaces an extra six weeks to obtain coverage before they incur a penalty. The announcement means that those who buy coverage through the exchange will have until March 31 to sign up for a plan.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said delaying the launch of the insurance exchanges was "not really an option" — even though those building the federal website knew about major problems days in advance. "There are people in this country who have waited decades for affordable health coverage, people who are so eager for this to happen."

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Days before the launch of President Obama’s online health insurance marketplace, government officials and contractors tested a key part of the Web site to see whether it could handle tens of thousands of consumers at the same time. It crashed after a simulation in which just a few hundred people tried to log on simultaneously. Despite the failed test, federal health officials plowed ahead.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Federal contractors have identified most of the main problems crippling President Obama’s online health insurance marketplace, but the administration has been slow to issue orders for fixing those flaws, and some contractors worry that the system may be weeks away from operating smoothly, people close to the project say.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Republican foes of the overhaul came out of the confrontation with only a tweak to income verification rules for those seeking subsidies to buy coverage on the new health insurance exchanges. The agreement created a new budget deadline, however, requiring lawmakers to return to the table to reach a long term deficit reduction agreement by Dec. 13.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Rank-and-file senators on Wednesday morning will review a deal to reopen the government and extend its borrowing authority. Aides to the Democratic and Republican Senate leaders worked on the proposal through the night. The only concession to the movement to gut President Obama’s health care law is a mild tightening of income verification rules for people obtaining subsidized health insurance on the new insurance exchanges. Even any alteration of the law’s tax on medical devices, hated by members of both parties, was removed from the final deal.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online health insurance exchanges resulted from the failure of a major software component, designed by private contractors, that crashed under the weight of millions of users last week, federal officials said Monday.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Consumers trying to price health insurance in the new federally run health marketplaces may have been having trouble getting through the government’s main web site, healthcare.gov, but there’s a backdoor way to see the plans that are being offered in 36 states. The Department of Health and Human Services has posted premiums for more than 17,000 plans on its website. The data lists each plan by insurer and the plan name and the monthly premium rate for a child, a 27-year-old,a family with 30-year-old parents and two kids, a single-parent family with two 30-year-olds, and a 40-year-old couple without children. The plans are also listed by the metal tier (platinum, gold, silver or bronze) that details how comprehensive the coverage is, and what kind of plan it is (HMO, PPO, etc.). You can also search for plans by state and county.One spreadsheet shows premiums for health insurance and a second shows premiums for stand-alone dental plans. Also for small businesses, there are health premium rates and rates for stand-alone dental plans. https://www.healthcare.gov/health-plan-information/

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: It's Oct. 1 and the Affordable Care Act is finally getting its rollout, but President Barack Obama's health-care law looks a lot different from the one he signed 31/2 years ago. Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, about half the states aren't participating in a Medicaid expansion that was a core part of the legislation. The federal government is running the bulk of new marketplaces for health insurance, not the states as originally envisioned. And some of the key provisions are delayed, including one that makes larger businesses pay a fine if they don't offer coverage.