CINCINNATI — A panel of federal appellate judges seemed eager on Wednesday to rule on whether it is constitutional for the Obama health care law to require that uninsured Americans buy medical coverage. But the judges must first decide whether the plaintiffs still have legal standing to sue, after one disclosed that she recently bought health insurance from her employer.

If you have health insurance and have been putting off a colonoscopy, mammogram or other test, you now have one less excuse.

Health insurance reform requires that new group or individual health plans created or purchased since March 23, 2010, cover 100 percent of the costs of preventive care. That means you don’t have to pay a deductible, coinsurance or copay for a variety of tests and treatments.

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island has received a $5.2-million federal grant to continue its work developing a health-insurance exchange, a cornerstone of the federal health-care law.

WASHINGTON — Alarmed at soaring premiums and profits in the health insurance industry, the Obama administration demanded on Thursday that insurers justify proposed rate increases of more than 10 percent, starting in September.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield has trimmed Allegheny County’s annual bill for medical insurance by $1.5 million, Chief Executive Dan Onorato told members of county council this evening.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — State Rep. Steve Gottwalt, a three-term Republican with 10 years’ experience in the health-care industry, is no fan of last year’s health-care law — or its requirement that states set up insurance exchanges.

House lawmakers voted largely along party lines Thursday to pass a major overhaul of Maine’s health insurance policies that Republicans insist will lower rates through competition but Democrats warn could devastate health care in rural Maine.

Reporting from Richmond, Va.,—
The Obama administration received a friendly hearing for its defense of the new national healthcare law from three judges of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, all of whom were Democratic appointees.

In a party-line vote on Thursday, House Republicans gave initial approval to a package of sweeping changes in Maine’s health insurance laws, overriding minority Democrats’ objections that lawmakers had not had time to read the contents of the bill or consider the implications of their vote.

If the Republicans have their way and privatize Medicare, it will put millions of seniors at the mercy of health insurance companies and force them to pay $39 trillion more for Medicare coverage than they would under existing law, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).