The House’s top investigative committee on Wednesday dug into a laundry list of technical issues that are plaguing the new health care law’s rollout, forcing the Obama administration’s tech experts to parry tough questions at an acrimonious hearing as Obamacare’s issues roil Capitol Hill.
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, a California Republican who is House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, said the White House made a ‘“monumental mistake’” by hurtling forward with web-based insurance markets tied to the new health care law on Oct. 1, only to see the portals ‘“effectively explode on the launch pad.’”
SEE ALSO: Concierge medicine: WebMD pockets millions from feds to promote Obamacare
He criticized the administration for failing to take advantage of three years of preparation and millions in taxpayer dollars when it implemented HealthCare.gov, a key market-based pillar of the Affordable Care Act.
Before its disastrous rollout, President Obama pitched the network of 15 state-run health exchanges and the federal marketplace that serves 36 states as a conduit to affordable health plans, comparable to popular shopping and travel websites.
‘“This is an insult to Amazon and Kayak,’” Mr. Issa said, adding later, “Even Windows Vista launched better than the Obamacare website.”
The Obama administration has pledged to make HealthCare.gov work smoothly for the ‘“vast majority of users’” by the end of this month. But Republicans are skeptical, and members of both parties are trying to smooth over the law’s problems before they suffer the political consequences.
Wednesday’s hearing produced fireworks from the start, with Mr. Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, sniping at each other over leaked excerpts of closed-door testimony and time-keeping during the public question-and-answer period.
Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said the agency underestimated the number of users who would log on to the federal website at the same time. The agency added capacity, but ‘“unanticipated technical problems surfaced.’”
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Health Care Reform
‘“Some of those problems have been resolved, and the site is functioning much better than it did initially,’” Mr. Chao told the committee.
Mr. Chao’s prepared testimony said the system is ‘“now able to process nearly 17,000 registrants per hour, or 5 per second, with almost no errors.’”
As an aside, Mr. Issa said that if the agency knows how many people can enroll, then it should have answered the Ways and Means Committee’s subpoena for enrollment figures.
Other Republicans pointed their spears at Mr. Chao and alternated between respect and criticism of Todd Park, the White House’s chief technology officer, who slept on the floor to stay on hand during the first month of repairs to HealthCare.gov.
“You’re Clark Kent coming out of the phone booth here,” Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said to Mr. Park at one point, as he tried to figure out who was in charge of the website’s implementation.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, North Carolina Republican, vented frustration when Mr. Chao asked what the lawmaker meant by “fully tested” during his questions about online security.
“‘Fully tested?’ Holy cow, this is like a new low,” Mr. McHenry said.
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, a California Republican who is House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, said the White House made a ‘“monumental mistake’” by hurtling forward with web-based insurance markets tied to the new health care law on Oct. 1, only to see the portals ‘“effectively explode on the launch pad.’”
SEE ALSO: Concierge medicine: WebMD pockets millions from feds to promote Obamacare
He criticized the administration for failing to take advantage of three years of preparation and millions in taxpayer dollars when it implemented HealthCare.gov, a key market-based pillar of the Affordable Care Act.
Before its disastrous rollout, President Obama pitched the network of 15 state-run health exchanges and the federal marketplace that serves 36 states as a conduit to affordable health plans, comparable to popular shopping and travel websites.
‘“This is an insult to Amazon and Kayak,’” Mr. Issa said, adding later, “Even Windows Vista launched better than the Obamacare website.”
The Obama administration has pledged to make HealthCare.gov work smoothly for the ‘“vast majority of users’” by the end of this month. But Republicans are skeptical, and members of both parties are trying to smooth over the law’s problems before they suffer the political consequences.
Wednesday’s hearing produced fireworks from the start, with Mr. Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, sniping at each other over leaked excerpts of closed-door testimony and time-keeping during the public question-and-answer period.
Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said the agency underestimated the number of users who would log on to the federal website at the same time. The agency added capacity, but ‘“unanticipated technical problems surfaced.’”
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Health Care Reform
‘“Some of those problems have been resolved, and the site is functioning much better than it did initially,’” Mr. Chao told the committee.
Mr. Chao’s prepared testimony said the system is ‘“now able to process nearly 17,000 registrants per hour, or 5 per second, with almost no errors.’”
As an aside, Mr. Issa said that if the agency knows how many people can enroll, then it should have answered the Ways and Means Committee’s subpoena for enrollment figures.
Other Republicans pointed their spears at Mr. Chao and alternated between respect and criticism of Todd Park, the White House’s chief technology officer, who slept on the floor to stay on hand during the first month of repairs to HealthCare.gov.
“You’re Clark Kent coming out of the phone booth here,” Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said to Mr. Park at one point, as he tried to figure out who was in charge of the website’s implementation.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, North Carolina Republican, vented frustration when Mr. Chao asked what the lawmaker meant by “fully tested” during his questions about online security.
“‘Fully tested?’ Holy cow, this is like a new low,” Mr. McHenry said.