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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Rep. Michael C. Burgess, Texas Republican. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ** FILE **

Obamacare employer insurance mandate kicks in Jan. 1

Obamacare's insurance mandate on employers will quietly take effect for large companies Thursday, one year later than planned after a pair of unilateral delays fed into Republican claims the White House plays fast and loose with the implementation of its signature law.

December 31, 2014
FILE - This Nov. 12, 2014 file photo shows the HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, on a laptop screen, shown in Portland, Ore. Consumers in most places will see their health insurance premiums go up next year for popular plans under President Barack Obama’s health care law. But it will take time to get to a bottom line for family finances, let alone the larger political battle over the program’s future. For many people, government subsidies will cushion the hit. And there’s a new factor: returning customers who are savvy about health insurance and unafraid to shop for a better deal. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Obamacare’s federal exchange gains 1.8M new customers for 2015: HHS

Nearly 1.8 million new customers signed up for health coverage on the federal Obamacare marketplace and over 1.6 million actively re-enrolled for coverage starting Jan. 1, while an additional 600,000 new and returning customers added to the tally on exchanges run by 13 states and the District of Columbia, according to administration data released Tuesday.

December 30, 2014
FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2013, file photo, Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The Obama administration has concluded it will not publicly disclose federal records that could shed light on the security of the government's signature health care website because doing so could "potentially" allow hackers to break in. Last year, the AP found that Tavenner took the unusual step of signing the operational security certificate for HealthCare.gov herself _ even as her agency’s security professionals balked. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Accenture wins $563M contract to run HealthCare.gov

The Obama administration has awarded Accenture — the technology company that swooped in to help revive HealthCare.gov at the start of this year — a five-year, $563 million contract to continue its work on the federal Obamacare exchange, the company said Monday.

December 29, 2014
FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo President Barack Obama shares a laugh with outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. A spokeswoman said Friday, April 18, 2014, that Sebelius is not considering running for the U.S. Senate. The statement is in line with comments from Sebelius’ fellow Democrats about speculation that she’d return to Kansas this year to run for the seat held by three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Kathleen Sebelius has few regrets about Obamacare

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she has few regrets about how the Obamacare saga has played out, despite a disastrous rollout that led up to her resignation from President Obama's cabinet last spring.

December 29, 2014
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is touting his plan as a way of extending insurance to people in the "coverage gap" — a situation in which people make too much for Medicaid but too little for tax credits.

Republican governors push to expand Medicaid

Even as states wrestle with whether to expand their Medicaid programs under Obamacare, they're already grappling with the looming 2017 date when the federal government begins to cut its support, which will force states to have to make tricky budget decisions.

December 28, 2014
President Obama praised the courage of the U.S. Armed Forces as he called an end to combat operations in Afghanistan, thereby closing America's longest war. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) — FILE

Obama marks end of Afghan mission as ‘milestone’

President Obama marked the end of America's longest-ever war Sunday by praising those who died in the post-9/11 mission in Afghanistan and trumpeting his own efforts to bring troops home, even as he committed to leaving a "limited military presence" to train Afghan forces for the lingering fight against extremists.

December 28, 2014
President Barack Obama sits next to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell as he speaks about Ebola during a meeting with his national security and public health teams, Friday, Dec. 12, 2014, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Obamacare enrollment on federal exchange reaches nearly 6.4M

The Obama administration said Tuesday that nearly 6.4 million new and returning Obamacare customers had selected a plan on the federal exchange through Friday, a significant jump from previous enrollment reports because Americans who automatically renewed older plans were lumped into the official count.

December 23, 2014
Liberians election workers watch as a voter washes her hands before casting her votes, during the senate election in Monrovia, Liberia. Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014. Health workers manned polling stations across Liberia on Saturday as voters cast their ballots in a twice-delayed Senate vote that has been criticized for its potential to spread the deadly Ebola disease. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

Chris Coons sees progress against Ebola in Liberia

Sen. Chris Coons, the first member of Congress to visit the West African heart of the Ebola outbreak, said Monday that U.S. government and nonprofit aid has resulted in demonstrable progress against the virus in Liberia.

December 22, 2014
Birds fly past at sun set as smoke emits from a chimney at a factory in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. The momentum from a historic U.S.-China pact to resist global warming is showing signs of fading at the U.N. climate talks in Peru as the familiar rich-poor conflict persists over who should do what to keep the planet from overheating. The conference's high-level phase begins Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Manufacturers see little hope for Obamacare relief

Resurgent U.S. manufacturers face headwinds from Obamacare's mandates and taxes, but the law's namesake has two more years in the White House and public benefits will be hard to reel back despite the recent midterm election results, National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons said.

December 17, 2014