Julie Rovner

After a rocky start, the HealthCare.gov website is supposed to be able to handle 50,000 simultaneous users by the end of the month. That figure would represent about double the site's current capacity. An expected surge in demand will present a new test.

If you advertise it, they will come. Sign-ups for Medicaid are brisk, even in states that haven't expanded their programs with an infusion of federal dollars. Experts call that the "woodwork effect" — getting the word out to people who were already eligible.

President Obama's proposal — designed to help reverse the recent cancellation of some health policies — seems to leave the decision up to insurance companies. But there are other decision-makers in the mix who are just as important: state regulators.

There's been a lot of speculation about how many people have signed up for Affordable Care Act insurance. The official number will be reported at the end of the week. But unofficial estimates are leaking out, including 50,000 reported today. That's far less than the 500,000 that the administration originally predicted.

Self-employed workers are some of the people who could benefit most from insurance under the Affordable Care Act, but figuring out how much coverage will cost can be tricky. Well, we've got answers for them, and also for people wondering about what happens if they don't have any insurance at all.

The rules require most health insurance plans to provide the same coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatment as they do for other types of ailments. Coverage also has expanded under the Affordable Care Act, but not everyone benefits.

Twin embarrassments framed HHS Secretary's Kathleen Sebelius' day Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Criticism over the rocky rollout of the HealthCare.gov website was expected. But Sebelius also had to answer questions about insurance companies canceling policies for people who buy their own coverage.

Many health plans under the Affordable Care Act don't cover abortion. But people won't have an easy time figuring out which ones do and which ones don't. Even insurance brokers don't necessarily have that information. It's surfaced as yet another issue dogging the rollout of health exchanges.

An estimated 14 million families use these flexible spending accounts, or FSAs. Tied usually to employment at big companies, the accounts let people put aside money before taxes to help pay medical expenses insurance doesn't cover.

For Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, the big question was not why isn't the HealthCare.gov website working. It was why are people being told their insurance is being cancelled when President Obama said they can keep it, no matter what. Administration officials said the new coverage will be better.