Young, healthy people want to buy health insurance — if they can afford it. The Kaiser Family Foundation's latest tracking poll, released Wednesday, showed a broad desire to have health insurance. Among 18- to 25-year-olds, 77 percent said having health insurance is "very important." Seventy-six percent said insurance is "something I need" and "worth the money it costs."

That's good news for the Obama administration and supporters of the healthcare reform law, who need large numbers of young, healthy people to enroll in the law's new coverage options in order to prevent premiums from skyrocketing. 

Many of the law's critics say young people will remain uninsured, reasoning that they're healthy and therefore don't need to spend their money on insurance coverage. But only 24 percent of young people in the Kaiser poll said they're healthy enough that they don't need coverage.

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The nation's largest group of doctors wants to treat obesity as a disease and limit marketing of energy drinks to children, in a boon to lawmakers pushing for reforms.

The American Medical Association (AMA) voted to adopt the new policies during its annual meeting in Chicago on Wednesday.

People shouldn't be able to use food stamps to buy sugary drinks, the American Medical Association said Wednesday.

The AMA adopted a policy saying it will work to remove sugary drinks from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Sugar-sweetened drinks make up more than half of the beverages purchased through SNAP, the AMA said — a trend that contributes to high rates of obesity and is associated with health problems such as diabetes.

A pair of centrist senators introduced a bill Wednesday to soften the employer mandate in President Obama's healthcare law.

The healthcare law requires employers to offer coverage to employees who work more than 30 hours per week. Some employers have said they will reduce workers' hours to avoid the mandate.

Sens. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) proposed a bill to move the threshold to 40 hours per week, saying the employer mandate should match the traditional definition of a full-time worker.

The monthly cost of health insurance under President Obama's healthcare law is consistently coming in lower than expected.

Premiums for a middle-of-the-road policy have come in below earlier estimates in all nine states that have released their initial rate information.

A new analysis from Avalere Health says the lower-than-expected prices show that the central piece of the healthcare law — new insurance exchanges in each state — is working as intended.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on Wednesday announced the formation of a working group to press for greater oversight of compounding pharmacies.

The Working Group on Pharmaceutical Safety comes amid growing scrutiny of state-regulated compounding manufacturers who tailor drugs’ dosages or other properties to fit specific patient needs.

Few uninsured people have heard more than a little about ObamaCare's new health insurance marketplaces, highlighting the task facing the Obama administration as it seek to sell the law to this group.

According to a new poll, only about one in 10 uninsured people have heard "some" or "a lot" about the exchanges, which will begin signing up participants in October.

Another third say they've heard "only a little" about the new opportunity for healthcare coverage. Half say they've heard nothing at all. The survey was released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized President Obama for launching a “campaign-style PR blitz” to explain the healthcare reform law to the public.

“Americans still don’t like the idea of ObamaCare. Not because they’re unable to understand or because they just haven’t ‘seen the right messaging,’” McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It’s because they just don’t think the law is going to work as promised.”

A government report says it remains to be seen whether the administration will be ready on Oct. 1.