Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will visit an Obamacare call center in Phoenix today. Sebelius will meet with organizations who have been trained as navigators.
The Secretary is under fire for her bungling of the Obamacare roll out. While Senator Ted Cruz and others were belittled for asking for a delay of the individual mandate, Democrats are now calling for a delay as a result of the enrollment system’s many failures.
“Throughout the country, there is mass confusion and uncertainty surrounding Obamacare and the online exchange. Secretary Sebelius has a responsibility to step forward and give the American people answers. Instead of appearing before Congress, the Secretary is touring a call center in Phoenix. She should take this time to give everyone the answers they deserve,” said Arizona Representative David Schweikert.
Sebelius refused to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at a their hearing investigating the website issues. HHS officials cited a conflict in her schedule. She had to attend a gala.
Leaders on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter on Wednesday seeking answers from the Obama Administration’s top technology officials about the development of the problem-plagued federal insurance exchange website, HealthCare.gov. Information obtained by the Committee indicates that just one month before the website’s launch, the Administration directed contractors to change the site’s design to hide price comparisons from unregistered shoppers.
Committee members believe that the political decision to mask the ‘sticker shock’ of ObamaCare to the American people prevented contractors from using universally accepted and OMB-advocated IT ‘best practices’ in the development and roll out of this massive federal government IT project. They say that prudent programming decisions were subordinated to politics, resulting in the chaotic roll out.
Schweikert asks in anticipation of the Secretary’s visit, “How many people have successfully signed up on healthcare.gov? Why weren’t basic best practice guidelines utilized for the opening of the online exchange? How is it possible that after three years and hundreds-of-millions of taxpayer dollars spent, that HHS was caught ‘off-guard’ by website glitches? How much more will it cost to fix what’s wrong?”