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Even fewer were able to actually apply for coverage. Federal officials declined to provide those figures.

is uncertain financial situation is typical of the population most likely to consider the insurance marketplaces, said Ceci Connolly, managing director of the Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Only about 51 percent will have full-time jobs, with a median annual income of about $21,700, according to an analysis by her firm based on government data like the census. She said 38 percent of the people expected to enroll will end up shuttling several times between Medicaid and the marketplaces over the next four years. <img src="http://meter-svc.nytimes.com/meter.gif"/>

Doctors complain, though, that the savings comes from cutting reimbursement rates, which discourages health care providers from accepting Medicaid patients. The Texas Medical Association also expressed disappointment that Gov. Rick Perry rejected proposals to expand the number of people on Medicaid to include the working poor.

But since the poor and uninsured often rely on expensive emergency room care, Lunsford said hospitals will continue to pass on those costs to the public when those patients don’t pay their bills.

and nearly half have less than $1,000 on hand to deal with such expenses, according to a recent study by the disability insurer Aflac.

ut-of-pocket costs continue to rise even as healthcare inflation remains low.

Consumers also value account features that simplify the health care funding experience, the survey found. More than 65% ranked debit cards and multi-channel (web/mobile) account access as “extremely valuable,” while 60% said they “highly value” self-service features such as the ability to submit claims via mobile devices. Seventy-five percent of consumers said they value integration of benefit accounts and insurance claim data to streamline the process of reviewing and paying 

Health insurance costs ate 7.7 percent of total payroll expenses for private-sector employers in 2012, according to the NIHM study.

n 2013, individuals paid, on average, $5,900 in total annual premiums for employer-sponsored coverage. On average, family plans cost more than $16,300. “With employees’ costs for medical coverage growing much more quickly than general inflation, hourly earnings and family income, some workers are inevitably (being) priced out of coverage,” the study said.

2018, 40 million American employees will be enrolled in private exchanges

It’s estimated that seventy per cent of a primary-care doctor’s practice now involves management of psychosocial issues ranging from marriage counselling to treatment of anxiety and depression.

Fewer medical students are going into psychiatry, partly because psychiatrists, like primary-care doctors, earn among the lowest salaries of all physicians. Those who do choose psychi