Critics look to House panels to restrain health law; Big policy issues remain

Questions remain on implementing the health law -- both politically and in settling policy matters -- as opponents look to House committees to police the Obama administration's activities to get the law up and running.

Politico Pro: ACA Opponents Pin Hopes On House Panels
Republicans' attempts to ditch the health care law through Congress and the Supreme Court have failed, so they're funneling their energy into the one remaining venue through which they can still influence the law: committees in the House of Representatives. The GOP-led committees have the power to oversee the health overhaul as it's put into place -- and keep a sharp eye on the Obama administration as it works toward that end. Various committees are looking at a host of issues -- the software contracts for insurance exchanges, how quality bonuses might temporarily hide the sting of Medicare cuts and the administration's approach to selling a skeptical public on the benefits, to name a few (Cunningham, 11/26).

Medpage Today: Big Questions About ACA Still To Be Answered
But just because efforts by conservatives in Congress to repeal the law may be gone doesn't mean there aren't major questions left unanswered, according to Jonathan Oberlander, PhD, professor of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The Obama administration faces several challenges in the coming months in implementing the law, Oberlander wrote online in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece. … Politically vulnerable provisions of the law such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board also are left in question, he said (Pittman, 11/26).