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Women's health advocates say birth control prescriptions should be included in the free preventive care new health plans must offer.

With employers looking to hold the line on health costs and a persistent shortfall in public information about physician quality, choosing the right doctor is no easy task for most consumers.

More than 800,000 visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2009 were for toothaches and other avoidable dental ailments. In hard times, states often cut Medicaid's dental benefits, pushing low-income patients from the dentist's office to the emergency room.

Physicians who pack on the pounds discuss weight loss less frequently with obese patients than doctors who have normal weights, a study finds. Overweight and obese physicians expressed greater confidence in prescribing weight-loss drugs than other doctors.

Most health plans accept a credit card for the first month's premium and then require customers to pay monthly with a check or an electronic transfer from a bank account. For people without a banking relationship, these transactions can be tricky.

Instead of waiting for individual hospitals to apply to build proton centers, a health planning council solicited proposals, promising to favor collaborative approaches. A five-hospital group that teamed with a private company got the go-ahead to build in New York City.

You're in luck, if you live in the District of Columbia or one of the 21 states that have put in place specialists to handle questions and complaints private health insurance. Otherwise the maze could prove daunting.

The Affordable Care Act sets annual limits on the amount that people will owe out of pocket for prescription drugs starting in 2014. But sick people in some plans won't get relief until the following year because the federal government is giving certain health plans extra time to comply.

The green light comes despite questions about whether the proton beam treatment is more effective than less expensive options. The two centers, about three miles apart, will compete for patients in the Washington area.

It's the first disclosure of prices in the nation's most populous state for individual health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act. The menu of affordable options surprised some consumer advocates and analysts who had been expecting premiums to be much higher.