Julie Rovner

Days after President Obama became the first sitting president to speak before Planned Parenthood's national conference, the administration alienated some women's health groups with a controversial decision about access to emergency contraception.

An influential study of Medicaid in Oregon found that recipients used more health care, spent less money and reported improved health. But the results of a follow-up study are less positive about whether people with coverage were healthier.

Under the proposal, teenagers below 15 would now need a prescription to purchase the morning-after pill. That age was previously 17. The plan would also allow the product to be sold on retail shelves, rather than behind the pharmacy counters, with age to be verified by cashiers rather than pharmacy staff.

But reproductive health advocates says there's a big problem with leaving contraception training out: Many residency programs these days are run by religious hospitals that don't believe in contraception.

Abortion opponents say the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who is charged with five counts of murder, shows the need for more and stricter regulation of abortion clinics. But abortion rights backers say more restrictions give women few choices besides substandard facilities.

The administration's budget still matters, even though it's late and the House and Senate have approved their own spending blueprints for fiscal 2014. President Obama laid down markers that could lead to changes in Medicare and Medicaid and affect funding for a broad array of health programs.

One possible proposal in President Obama's budget would change the way Medicare patients pay for their care. It's been floated as a possible bipartisan compromise, but it's an idea with a long, controversial and unsuccessful history.

It's unclear if the Obama administration will appeal the ruling that allows the morning-after pill to be sold to women of all ages, without restriction. It's a fight that's been going on for a dozen years, and the ruling may not end it.

Workers in small businesses will have to wait a year longer than expected to be able to choose from more than one insurance plan in the marketplaces created by the federal health overhaul.

The Obama administration has decided to delay for a year a key piece of the health law that will let small businesses provide a choice of health plans to their workers. It is the first admission that the task of rolling out the law is too complicated to accomplish in the time allowed.

Arkansas is proposing to enroll people newly eligible for Medicaid in the same private insurance plans available to individuals and small businesses. It's caught the attention of several other Republican-run states that had been holding out on the Medicaid expansion.

Political divisiveness over the health care law is as strong as ever, and the American public has never been more confused. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that may not be such a terrible thing.