Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said that President Obama didn’t learn about the raft of technical problems plaguing the Obamacare website for at least a couple days after the fateful launch Oct. 1, and she likely will repeat that assertion when she testifies Wednesday morning before a hostile House committee.
Last week, the embattled secretary told CNN that Obama was clueless to the extent of the problems until well after the launch, even though insurance companies and government consultants had complained earlier about the faulty technology and the site crashed during a pre-launch test run.
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In her appearance today before the GOP-dominated House Energy and Commerce Committee, Sebelius will concede that the launch of the website was highly problematic, but will devote much of her opening remarks to defending the insurance program and its benefits for millions of Americans.
“The fact is that the Affordable Care Act delivered on its product: quality, affordable health insurance,” she says in her prepared remarks. “The tremendous interest shown in HealthCare.gov shows that people want to buy this product.
“We know the initial consumer experience at HealthCare.gov has not been adequate,” she added. “We will address these initial and any ongoing problems, and build a website that fully delivers on this promise of the Affordable Care Act.”
The burning question that will be hanging over her testimony – that has puzzled the president’s political defenders as well as his critics – is why Obama wasn’t immediately informed that the website for his signature health care program had failed to get off the launch pad on the first day.
Why wasn’t he more concerned about the details of the launch when the Affordable Care Act was the central issue in his fight with congressional Republicans that triggered the government shutdown the same day as the launch?
Jim Manley, a former spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and a Washington political consultant, conceded Tuesday that it strains credulity to think the White House would be kept in the dark about a technical crisis afflicting the president’s most important and cherished domestic program.
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“I’m trying to figure out the same thing,” Manley said in an interview. “There clearly was a disconnect between their messaging and some of the concerns that were out there about the mechanics behind the website. And I don’t have a good answer right now.”
“While the Democratic support for Obamacare is still rock solid,” Manley noted, “the fact is there are an awful lot of folks waiting to hear from the administration about how they’re going to fix this whole thing, and where they’re going from here.”
Adding to the puzzle was Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), with the main responsibility for building and operating the website. She told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday that she had informed “several White House staffers” in September about her decision to postpone several features of the new website – including a function to help small businesses shop for insurance plans for their employees and a Spanish language feature.
Yet when the main website itself was crashing and millions of Americans were prevented from either logging on or enrolling for insurance, neither Sebelius nor Tavenner immediately alerted the president or his aides about the unfolding public relations crisis, according to their testimony.
Republicans, meanwhile, are having a field day highlighting the website’s many faults and using the fiasco to renew their long-standing assault on the overall law.
At the same time, a growing number of Democrats – fearing the political implications of a troubled launch of the highly controversial health care law – have called for extending the March 31 deadline for signing up for health insurance.
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At least 10 Senate Democrats have signed a letter drafted by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) urging the Obama administration to extend the open enrollment period. And Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia supports a one-year delay of the individual mandate that requires people to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty.
Some House Ways and Means Committee Democrats who attended yesterday’s Tavenner hearing appeared conflicted in having to defend Obamacare from Republican criticism while many of their constituents fume about the inconvenience of applying for new insurance coverage—and often paying more for it.
“The fact is the administration really failed these Americans,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat running for Pennsylvania governor next year. She called the problematic rollout of Healthcare.gov inexcusable and unacceptable. “Going forward, there can be no more excuses.”
Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, another Democrat, said: “The promise of affordable health care can…be destroyed by problems of management.”
Moreover, two politically vulnerable House Democrats, Reps. Rick Nolan (D-MN) and Sean Maloney (D-NY), have called on President Obama to fire someone over Obamacare's botched rollout.
"I think the president needs to man up, find out who was responsible and fire them," Nolan told the Associated Press.
The Fiscal Times’ Brianna Ehley contributed to this report
