Tom Howell Jr.

Obamacare challengers to D.C. Circuit: Let Supreme Court decide where subsidies should flow

Obamacare challengers have asked a federal appeals court to stand down and let the Supreme Court decide whether the government may give subsidies to people who used the federal health exchange, a standoff that threatens to upend the health overhaul.

August 21, 2014

Obamacare tax forms may pose challenge for enrollees, exchanges

Obamacare customers won't be able to file their tax returns next year until the government sends them a form detailing their coverage and tax credits, and if those forms are late some taxpayers could face a delay in seeking their refunds.

August 20, 2014

Sen. Mark Pryor releases a rare pro-Obamacare ad

Sen. Mark Pryor's re-election campaign released an ad Wednesday that touts a part of Obamacare — a rarity among Democrats hoping to stave off attacks derived from the law's negative headlines and poor polling numbers.

August 20, 2014

Grimes takes heat over family discount on bus

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign is hitting Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes for renting a bus acquired by her father's company for less than what other similar services would charge — a discrepancy legal experts say could be considered an illegal in-kind contribution.

August 19, 2014

Obamacare suffers bad news on cost, tax fronts

The Obamacare program got a double dose of bad news Tuesday as a federal watchdog reported its tax on medical devices is bringing in less money than expected, while a Federal Reserve study warned that many private companies expect to see their health costs soar because of the president's signature health law.

August 19, 2014

Chris Christie is lone GOP presidential prospect to expand Medicaid

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's decision to expand Medicaid under Obamacare puts him alone among Republican governors vying for the 2016 presidential nomination, and could come back to haunt him among primary voters.

August 18, 2014

Democrats ignore gains in coverage under Obamacare

Arkansas and Kentucky have been Southern pioneers in rolling out Obamacare and getting their residents covered this year, but Democratic Senate candidates in those states aren't boasting about it in their campaign ads.

August 18, 2014

Top Dem vows review of police access to military equipment

The top Senate Democrat overseeing the military said Friday that Congress will reexamine the programs that allow state and local authorities to buy or borrow military equipment, as the backlash against heavily armed and armored police grows.

August 15, 2014

New Idaho exchange will grab its 76K Obamacare customers without feds’ help

Idaho officials say they're tired of waiting on files from the federal government and have figured out a way to transfer the state's 76,000 Obamacare customers from the federal marketplace to its state-run portal this fall.

August 14, 2014

Administration urges Obamacare customers to update citizenship data

The Obama administration pleaded with more than 300,000 Obamacare customers Tuesday to fix inconsistent citizenship or immigration data they submitted to the government or else risk losing their health coverage by the end of next month.

August 12, 2014

Partisan divide seen in federal judges’ Obamacare votes

Predicting whether Obamacare survives its latest battery of court challenges could be as easy as looking at the judges making the decisions — and the presidents who appointed them.

August 10, 2014

Kentucky, Arkansas tops in trimming uninsured rate under Obamacare

Two southern states with key Senate contests have seen the sharpest drops in their uninsured rates since Obamacare's rule requiring Americans to hold health insurance took effect at the start of this year, according to Gallup.

August 5, 2014

Treasury IG: IRS is reporting accurate data to Obamacare system

The IRS generally is reporting accurate income and family size information to the Obamacare's new insurance exchanges, according to a Treasury audit Tuesday that offers good news to an Obama administration dogged by questions about whether its health care law's systems actually work.

August 5, 2014

Obama administration asked whole D.C. Circuit to take on major Obamacare case

The Obama administration has asked the second-most powerful court in America to take a second look at a ruling that, if upheld, would blow a huge hole in its signature health care law.

August 1, 2014

John Kerry condemns attack on Israeli soldiers, kidnapping

Secretary of State John Kerry condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the Friday attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and led to the apparent capture of a third, saying it was an "outrageous violation of the cease-fire" negotiated in recent days.

August 1, 2014

U.S. starts to evacuate American Ebola patients from West Africa: Report

American health officials are transferring an American patient infected with the Ebola virus from West Africa to the U.S. for treatment in Atlanta.

August 1, 2014

Israeli spokesman: No need to debate who broke the cease-fire

The spokesman for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday there is really no debate about who broke a humanitarian cease-fire between his country and the Hamas group on the Palestinian side of the conflict that's been raging over Gaza for days.

August 1, 2014