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It's still too soon to say whether this is a historically bad flu season. But it's already clear that emergency rooms around the country are filled with feverish throngs that are much larger than during the last flu season.

As the long, slow demise of company-sponsored retiree health insurance continues, some firms are contracting with Medicare exchanges to try to ease the transition for their former employees.

People with severe injuries tend to fare much better at specialized trauma centers than in typical emergency rooms. But a study suggests less equipped hospitals are hanging on to patients who can pay.

What sets these bargain markets apart? They tend to have robust competition among hospitals and doctors, allowing insurers to wrangle lower rates. Many of the best deals are to be had in Minnesota, where managed care has long held prices in check.

Under the federal health law and 2006 regulations, insurers can't deny medical coverage for an individual's injuries because they resulted from a medical condition such as depression, even if it wasn't diagnosed before the injury.

When a relative signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing — and unnerving — for the rest of the family who may have grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage.

Despite a Justice Department decision giving same-sex married couples equal recognition in federal courthouses, prisons and other programs, inconsistency in the treatment of same-sex married couples under the health law remains. States still make their own decisions.

Verifying that a patient has paid for coverage under the Affordable Care Act can take hours. But if doctors' offices don't check, they can get stuck with the bill.

Clubfoot is a common birth defect that can make walking difficult. It used to be treated with surgery, which could have serious side effects, but a simple nonsurgical solution is now the norm. It took years of pushing by parents for that treatment to become accepted.

San Francisco's Chinatown has long had its own hospitals and health care system. Now, one of the hospitals there is offering health insurance plans on California's exchange specifically for the Chinese-American community. It has been very successful where other plans have not.