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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.

Insurers often don't cover condoms, contraceptive sponges and spermicides unless people get a prescription for them. And that requires thinking ahead.

States and the federal government have a big job to do when it comes to explaining to the uninsured how to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The success of the law will be judged in part by how many Latinos sign up.

Young adults insured under their parents' plans were shielded from the potentially catastrophic cost of a medical emergency, a review of hospital records found. Researchers say $147 million in hospital bills were charged to insurers rather than the patients in 2011.

Immigrants contribute tens of billions of dollars a year more to Medicare than immigrant retirees use in medical services, an analysis finds. Restrictions on immigration could deplete Medicare's finances.

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.

Plans offering coverage that lasts 364 days can cost half as much as those that are in force for a year. But the savings may be illusory for people who need care for injuries or illnesses because the coverage can be skimpier.

For the system to work, however, age won't be as important as how healthy or unhealthy all the new enrollees are. And insurers won't really know that until next year, when claims start rolling in. Sick people are more motivated to sign up early, researchers say.

Insurance enrollment will be a key yardstick for assessing whether the Affordable Care Act is working. Almost as important as the total number of people who get coverage is whether a significant percentage of them are healthy.

Many health insurance policies for part-time workers will end next year and won't be renewed. Better quality choices will likely be on the menu for these workers, though they are also going to cost people more.