Program For Financial Studies Channel

FORTUNE -- We now know that 7.1 million people signed up for health care insurance during the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s initial enrollment period, which ended on March 31. But, what is less well known is the potential financial disaster facing these millions of consumers who have chosen policies during the last six months.

Healthier drinks may soon be on tap at casual fast-food chains, thanks to Philip David Crouse ’12 and Carlos Ayalde Garcia ’12, winners of Columbia’s 2012 A. Lorne Weil Outrageous Business Plan Competition.

For the second year in a row, a Columbia Business School student was awarded the YM/WREA David Winoker Scholarship. Karl Chan ’15, an officer within the school’s Real Estate Association, was named the 2013-14 scholarship recipient, which recognizes personal and professional success and charitable or community service involvement.

Fola Akinnibi, USA TODAYAbout one in 10 Americans -- 9% -- say The Affordable Care Act has improved their health insurance situation in the past year, according to a new survey by Bankrate.com.The telephone survey asked a representative sample of 1,001 Americans about their knowledge of and feelings about the law that mandates health care insurances for all Americans in coming years.

Held on Monday, May 6, at the Waldorf Astoria, the event drew 173 gifts in total, including gifts from 53 new donors.

Hitendra Wadhwa of the Marketing Division has been named Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Business School, effective July 1, 2011.

Congratulations to our colleagues Andrew Hertzberg and Daniel Paravisini.  The paper “Public Information and Coordination: Evidence from a Credit Registry Expansion” (co-authored with Jose Liberti) just won the Brattle Group Distinguished Paper Prize at the AFA meeting in Chicago.