Things are a little slow around TIME’s New York office this week, with some of our staff still stranded elsewhere thanks to the blizzard of 2010. The week between Christmas and New Year’s is also notoriously slow in the news business, with the President out of town and Congress out of session.

All of which makes it a perfect time to recap some important health care news.

First, The Good

The Los Angeles Times finds evidence that some small businesses previously offering no health insurance to their workers are reversing course, in part, due to new tax breaks in the Affordable Care Act. When a September report from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed a sharp uptick in coverage offered by small businesses, I was skeptical it was due to the new law. But the L.A. Times has done good legwork – calling individual insurers and brokers to gather anecdotal and data-driven proof that the new law is having this positive effect.

Small business employees are among the most likely to be uninsured and small business owners who do offer coverage bear the brunt of rising insurance premiums. With tiny risk pools, their premiums are unstable and high, which is why the new reform law included tax breaks to help the smallest businesses buy coverage.

Next, The Bad