Doug Mills/The New York Times
Sebelius's Difficult Day on the Hill: Highlights from the testimony before a House committee by Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, who called the first month of the HealthCare.gov site “flawed.”
WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, apologized Wednesday for the frustration that millions of Americans have experienced while trying to shop for insurance on the HealthCare.gov website, even as she defended the problem-plagued rollout of President Obama’s health care law and tried to explain the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of individual insurance policies.
Ms. Sebelius, fighting for her political life at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said she was “as frustrated and angry as anyone with the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov.”
Ms. Sebelius said she was ultimately responsible for “this debacle,” including the website’s problems. But she said that a government contractor, Verizon’s Terremark unit, was responsible for outages that disrupted the website on Sunday and again on Tuesday.
Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the committee, said: “Over the months leading up to the Oct. 1 launch, the secretary and her colleagues repeatedly looked us in the eye and testified that everything was on track. Despite the numerous red flags and lack of testing, they assured us that all systems were a go. But something happened along the way. Either those officials did not know how bad the situation was, or they did not disclose it.”
Moreover, Mr. Upton said: “There are millions of Americans coast to coast who no doubt believed the president’s repeated promise that if they liked their plan, they’d be able to keep it. They are now receiving termination notices.”
Ms. Sebelius said the cancellation of some individual policies was a justifiable byproduct of the 2010 health care law. These policies will be replaced, she said, with new policies that provide better benefits and more consumer protections, often at similar or lower prices.
People in the individual market have never had consumer protections, Ms. Sebelius said, adding, “They can be locked out, priced out, dumped out.”
However, in recent weeks, many consumers have received cancellation notices offering new policies at prices much higher than what they have been paying.
Ms. Sebelius minimized the significance of recent changes in individual insurance policies, which have shocked many consumers.
“In the individual market, plans change every year,” she said, adding, “This market has always been the Wild West.”
Representative John Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, said the federal website was misleading because it often displayed inaccurate prices. People who click on a link to “preview plans and prices” see a variety of health insurance options.
But, Mr. Shimkus said, that part of the website lumps people into two broad categories. Anyone under the age of 50 sees the average price for a 27-year-old, he said, while people 50 or older see the premium for a person 50 years old.
To see prices for their particular circumstances, consumers need to create personal accounts at HealthCare.gov, and many have encountered roadblocks trying to do that.
Confidential government documents show that the main contractor on the project, CGI Federal, a unit of the CGI Group, warned the Obama administration of problems with the website in early September.
“Due to the compressed schedule, there is not enough time built in to allow for adequate performance testing,” CGI said in a report sent to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Sept. 6.
Four days later a top CGI executive, Cheryl R. Campbell, told Congress that the company was “confident in its ability to deliver successfully” on its contract, so people could use the website to enroll in health insurance plans starting Oct. 1.
In its report, CGI said it was a “near certainty” that the company would not have enough time for testing. The company said it wanted to “work with C.M.S. to establish a realistic schedule that will allow for the necessary testing.”
Ms. Sebelius acknowledged that comprehensive testing of the website, which began in mid-September, was inadequate.
Sebelius's Difficult Day on the Hill: Highlights from the testimony before a House committee by Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, who called the first month of the HealthCare.gov site “flawed.”
WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, apologized Wednesday for the frustration that millions of Americans have experienced while trying to shop for insurance on the HealthCare.gov website, even as she defended the problem-plagued rollout of President Obama’s health care law and tried to explain the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of individual insurance policies.
Ms. Sebelius, fighting for her political life at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said she was “as frustrated and angry as anyone with the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov.”
Ms. Sebelius said she was ultimately responsible for “this debacle,” including the website’s problems. But she said that a government contractor, Verizon’s Terremark unit, was responsible for outages that disrupted the website on Sunday and again on Tuesday.
Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the committee, said: “Over the months leading up to the Oct. 1 launch, the secretary and her colleagues repeatedly looked us in the eye and testified that everything was on track. Despite the numerous red flags and lack of testing, they assured us that all systems were a go. But something happened along the way. Either those officials did not know how bad the situation was, or they did not disclose it.”
Moreover, Mr. Upton said: “There are millions of Americans coast to coast who no doubt believed the president’s repeated promise that if they liked their plan, they’d be able to keep it. They are now receiving termination notices.”
Ms. Sebelius said the cancellation of some individual policies was a justifiable byproduct of the 2010 health care law. These policies will be replaced, she said, with new policies that provide better benefits and more consumer protections, often at similar or lower prices.
People in the individual market have never had consumer protections, Ms. Sebelius said, adding, “They can be locked out, priced out, dumped out.”
However, in recent weeks, many consumers have received cancellation notices offering new policies at prices much higher than what they have been paying.
Ms. Sebelius minimized the significance of recent changes in individual insurance policies, which have shocked many consumers.
“In the individual market, plans change every year,” she said, adding, “This market has always been the Wild West.”
Representative John Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, said the federal website was misleading because it often displayed inaccurate prices. People who click on a link to “preview plans and prices” see a variety of health insurance options.
But, Mr. Shimkus said, that part of the website lumps people into two broad categories. Anyone under the age of 50 sees the average price for a 27-year-old, he said, while people 50 or older see the premium for a person 50 years old.
To see prices for their particular circumstances, consumers need to create personal accounts at HealthCare.gov, and many have encountered roadblocks trying to do that.
Confidential government documents show that the main contractor on the project, CGI Federal, a unit of the CGI Group, warned the Obama administration of problems with the website in early September.
“Due to the compressed schedule, there is not enough time built in to allow for adequate performance testing,” CGI said in a report sent to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Sept. 6.
Four days later a top CGI executive, Cheryl R. Campbell, told Congress that the company was “confident in its ability to deliver successfully” on its contract, so people could use the website to enroll in health insurance plans starting Oct. 1.
In its report, CGI said it was a “near certainty” that the company would not have enough time for testing. The company said it wanted to “work with C.M.S. to establish a realistic schedule that will allow for the necessary testing.”
Ms. Sebelius acknowledged that comprehensive testing of the website, which began in mid-September, was inadequate.