House GOP intensifies probe of Obamacare, sets four oversight hearings for this week -- By David Drucker, The Washington Examiner

House Republicans this week will continue their aggressive dissection of Obamacare, with four planned committee oversight hearings that will probe far beyond the troubled healthcare.gov website that the Obama administration says is on the mend.

The Republicans’ strategy of digging deeper in the ongoing implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its impact should come into wider view by year’s end, as news about lingering glitches with the federal online marketplace possibly fades. House committees conducting the latest round of hearings includes Ways and Means, Small Business, Energy and Commerce, and Oversight and Government Reform, which convenes Friday in Apache Junction, Ariz., to explore the issue of canceled health plans.

Indeed, Republicans will examine several potential problems looming for Obamacare that go far beyond the technical problems of the healthcare.gov website.

"Millions of Americans being informed that the healthcare plans they liked are cancelled, despite the president's repeated assurances otherwise ... remain a greater priority than healthcare.gov, though questions about its capabilities and security remain," a House GOP leadership aide told the Washington Examiner.

President Obama and congressional Democrats have focused on fixing healthcare.gov as the key to resuscitating voters’ faith in the health care law and their leadership ahead of the 2014 elections. The administration announced over the Thanksgiving weekend that it met its own Nov. 30 deadline to improve the troubled website.

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