Enrollment

Health care plan premiums will rise an average of 4.2 percent next year in Californias insurance exchange, the largest Obamacare market in the U.S., state officials said.

Although some brokers may be intimidated by stepping into uncharted benefits territory, for others its an opportunity to expand their business and their own knowledge and experience.

The principle deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would not promise that healthcare.gov will be fully ready in November, when people can start buying insurance plans for 2015.

Though millions of Americans have gotten health coverage under PPACA, a new report finds many more either are still unaware of their options or are simply not interested.

The rate increases were masked by federal subsidies that PPACA provides to 88 percent of Californians who purchased coverage through the states exchange, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said.

Longer term, questions remain on whether the slowdown seen recently in health-care costs can be definitively tied to PPACA or whether it was the result of a slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession.

WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, boosted its annual profit forecast as the industry starts to see gains from customers buying its products through the Obamacare overhaul.

About 3.4 million previously uninsured Californians 58 percent report getting health insurance since last summer, according to new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, but the remaining uninsured may be nearly impossible to reach.