Issa: If health law glitches persist, Sebelius should go
Promising to press investigations into what went wrong, congressional Republicans Sunday suggested that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should step down over the website problems that have crippled the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.
“The president has been poorly served in the implementation of his own signature legislation,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“If she cannot reorganize to get the kind of team in consistently to meet his agenda, then she shouldn’t be there,” said Issa, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
To congressional Republicans battered by public disapproval of their government shutdown strategy, the bungled design of the program’s website is providing an opportunity to resume the offensive against the Obama administration and the extensive health insurance expansion known as Obamacare.
The HealthCare.gov
More problems
A data center that hosts the key website for the health care exchanges that are at the heart of President Barack Obama’s signature law lost connectivity Sunday, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Verizon’s Terremark, which operates a data center hosting the website HealthCare.gov and a data system for verifying information, experienced a networking component failure that affected several government websites.
— Reuters
website that was to be the main entryway for users has been plagued by long delays and errors in transmitting data to insurance companies. President Barack Obama named Jeffrey Zients, deputy budget director, to oversee an overhaul; Zients pledged the site will be working well by the end of November.
Issa said Sunday he would press to learn why the website was changed to require users to create an account before they could check prices on the insurance exchanges. In a letter to the administration, Issa charged that the problems stemmed from a “political decision,” so users wouldn’t get upset about prices.
Democrats have said Issa is twisting the facts.
Sebelius is set to testify Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, vice chairman of the committee, said she wants to know how much money has been spent and how much it will take to get it working.
“We want her to talk with us before she is out the door,” the Tennessee Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But I tell you, the incompetence in building this website is staggering.”
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, said his state-run exchange has been successful and promises to be a turning point in health care for his state, which he says consistently has some of the poorest health statistics in the country. He said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that news media and critics should “take a deep breath.”