Julie Rovner

Dental coverage is a required benefit for children under the Affordable Care Act. But it's not turning out to be quite that simple. For one thing, there are no federal subsidies to help pay for stand-alone dental policies.

Health care costs grew at 3.7 percent in 2012, the fourth year of a trend of smaller annual increases. The Obama administration says that the Affordable Care Act is a factor. But the actuaries who wrote the report beg to differ, saying the recession is a more likely cause.

Children automatically get dental coverage through Affordable Care Act policies, and adults can buy dental insurance if they wish. That's one of the big changes under the health care law. And everyone has until March 31 to buy insurance and avoid penalties.

If people have insurance coverage, the theory went, they won't end up in the emergency room as often. But an analysis of Oregon's expansion of Medicaid found that people who gained coverage were 40 percent more likely to go to the emergency room.

Just six people managed to sign up for health insurance through the federal website the day it opened for business. The numbers are better now, but the botched rollout may have not only inconvenienced people, but also permanently changed people's perceptions of the Affordable Care Act.

People whose health policies were canceled get hardship exemptions that excuse them from penalties. They'll also have the option to buy catastrophic coverage. These little-noticed plans cover only three primary care visits, specified preventive services and medical costs that exceed a high minimum.

After a decade of kicking the ball down the road, Congress appears ready to repeal its payment formula for Medicare and replace it with a whole new system. This time, doctors would be paid according to the quality of results they produce, rather than the number of services they provide.

People now have until January 10 to pay for their first month of coverage through the health exchanges. But people using the federal exchange still have to get signed up by Dec. 23. Some states have pushed deadlines even later.

What questions do you have about the new national health care law known as Obamacare? Use NPR's interactive guide to answer them.

Probably the best feature of the retooled HealthCare.gov website is that you can actually use it. People are now able to get a customized list of plans and prices, and click through to see an insurer's provider directory. Still, better though it is, it's clearly not 100 percent.

Missouri is one of more than a dozen states where Republican-led governments have passed laws or otherwise taken steps to restrict insurance navigators and other in-person counselors from attempting to help people sign up for health insurance on the new exchanges.

A woman in Michigan says that a Catholic hospital failed to give her adequate health care when she came to the hospital after her water broke when she was 18 weeks pregnant. That has sparked a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.