Hearing Description:
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius appeared in front of the Energy and Commerce Committee to testify on the status of Healthcare.gov and the Affordable Care Act. She maintained the website would be fully operational by the end of November.
Hearing Date: October 30, 2013
Hearing Summary: Prepared for AAPS by the Market Institute
The Energy and Commerce Committee convened to question Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the Affordable Care Act.
Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in his opening statement that because of the ongoing problems with Healthcare.gov, either HHS did not disclose issues with the site to Congress or did not know about them. Millions of Americans were under the impression they could keep their insurance plans “no matter what,” but now many of them are having their plans canceled. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said in his opening statement that the launch of the website has not gone well, but the early glitches will soon be forgotten. The issue should be kept in perspective, because the ACA is improving the health security of millions. He is confident that the website will be fixed and then millions of new people will have access to coverage.
The lone witness, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in her opening statement that access to Healthcare.gov has been a “miserably frustrating” experience for consumers. She apologized to Americans and held herself accountable for the fixes. HHS has called in a new general contractor and other tech resources to manage the glitches. The assessment that has been made show that the website is fixable, claimed Sebelius. There is a plan in place to fix key issues and by the end of November users will be able to navigate the site without problems.
In response to questioning, Kathleen Sebelius said:
- Insurance companies cancel and terminate plans all the time,
- About $118 million has been spent on the website and $56 million has been spent on IT support related to the website
- She should be held accountable for this debacle and not Michelle Snyder at HHS
- She is fully committed to the privacy of Americans and has asked CGI to remove so called “boilerplate” language in the source code of the website that says they have no “reasonable expectation of privacy”
- QSSI has taken on the role as system integrator and HHS has full confidence in them to get the system fully working by the end of November
- Clearly there is a demand for affordable care and it is HHS’s mission to deliver on that implementation
- 2 weeks of testing Healthcare.gov was clearly not enough time
- She will find out what security testing is occurring on the website
- There is not reliable data available on enrollment numbers
- CMS head Marilyn Tavenner and a team made the decision to make people create an account before being able to see insurance coverage prices
- The insurance market prior to the ACA was unprotected and unregulated
- She would find it troubling if states do not take advantage of the Medicaid expansion
- There were no talks on delaying the launch of Healthcare.gov
- “I would suggest the website has never crashed. It is functional but at a very slow speed and low reliability.”
Hearing Website: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/ppaca-implementation-failures-answers-hhs
Link to Testimony:
Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary
