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Sebelius: Obamacare website problems blindsided the President

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  • Sebelius: Obamacare website problems blindsided the President

    Before it even launched, red flags went up about the Obamacare website. Health insurance companies complained about it, and the site crashed during a test run. But nobody told the President of any of it, the nation's health chief told CNN.

    Kathleen Sebelius said President Barack Obama didn't hear that there may be problems with the sign-up portal for his signature health care law until it went live on October 1. That's when the site nosedived into a technical abyss.

    In an exclusive interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the Health and Human Services secretary admitted that her department and the White House are displeased with the technically botched website's rollout.

    "No one could be more frustrated than I am and the President," she said.

    The site was supposed to make it simple for people to search and sign up for new health care policies, but instead it's been clunky and, at times, inoperable. And for Sebelius, that's disappointing.

    "We're not at all satisfied with the workings of the website," she said. "We want it to be smooth and easy and let consumers compare plans."

    Bringing the 'A-Team'

    A team of high-tech experts from within the government and from Silicon Valley is going to tackle the issues, Sebelius said. Jeff Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, will lead the team.

    So why weren't they brought in before the website launched October 1?

    "We (had) hoped that they had their 'A-Team' on the table" from the start, Sebelius said of the contractors and agencies responsible for the project.

    But now, she said, "we want new eyes and ears. We want to make sure that we get all the questions on the table, that we get all the answers and accelerate the fix as quickly as possible."

    The secretary attributed some problems to "extremely high" volume, saying nearly 20 million people came to the Obamacare website in the first three weeks after its launch. Yet only 500,000 people have created accounts on the website. And not all of them have necessarily enrolled in health care plans.

    It's not like no one saw this coming. When the website crashed during a test run, just a few hundred users were on it.

    But the Obama administration went ahead with the launch. Waiting was not an option, Sebelius said.

    "There are people in this country who have waited for decades for affordable health coverage for themselves and their families," she said.

    A political lightning rod

    Sebelius' comments struck some Republicans as surprising and even odd.

    "At this point, she has a lot of questions to answer, and we look forward to her testimony in the House next week," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

    A Senate GOP leadership aide called the situation "odd."

    "Everyone was surprised by her statement that the President was unaware of the website's failures until a few days into it," the aide told CNN.

    "They had been claiming that the Obamacare rollout was his top priority and that he was receiving regular updates, which was inaccurate. And he gave remarks on October 1 about how great it was and that people should go sign up," the aide said. "Assuming that he didn't know that the website didn't work, why did they let him make that speech when they knew it had crashed in testing? Did really no one recommend a delay to the President? It just seems odd."


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    May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
    Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
    And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
    may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

  • #2
    They are acting like this is some huge ultra-complicating thing and it's not.

    Why don't they have eHealth on board by now? They actually know how to do this since they've got their own very successful exchanges running.

    Rank incompetence!
    "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
    -John Locke

    "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
    -Newman

    Comment


    • #3
      I'm going with "intentional incompetence that grew out of control."
      It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
      In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
      Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
      Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

      Comment


      • #4
        It's designed to fail - even government couldn't screw this up this badly by accident. People will be all shocked and horrified by their new plans, more employers will drop more people on the exchanges, tearful families of five will appear on morning shows demonstrating that making the payments means they have to go barefoot and the natives will get restless.

        Eventually the government will have emergency sessions to enact universal healthcare and people will be fine with it since they already lost their doctors, lost their plan options, lost their deductions, etc. Comparisons will be made to Canada and Sweden for per person costs and they will look a lot better than what people were paying under the ACA. Except we aren't Canada or Sweden. Large, diverse, partially third world populations with large criminal sectors don't have the same needs as small, mostly heterogeneous populations of law-abiders. More resources will be needed. I guess this will mostly come from the people still working but this isn't 1955 and we don't have full employment among those who are able to work.

        I don't know how this will turn out.
        "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."

        Comment


        • #5
          Sebelius: We Didn't Test ObamaCare Website Because Of The Republicans

          KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: "In an ideal world there would have been a lot more testing. We did not have the luxury of that with a law that said it's go time on October 1st and frankly a political atmosphere where the majority party at least in the House was determined to stop this any way they possibly could including shutting down the United States government. So it was not an ideal atmosphere."


          If only the House had offered a delay.
          May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
          Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
          And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
          may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Michele View Post
            Sebelius: We Didn't Test ObamaCare Website Because Of The Republicans

            KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: "In an ideal world there would have been a lot more testing. We did not have the luxury of that with a law that said it's go time on October 1st and frankly a political atmosphere where the majority party at least in the House was determined to stop this any way they possibly could including shutting down the United States government. So it was not an ideal atmosphere."


            If only the House had offered a delay.
            Good Lord, how ridiculous!
            It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
            In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
            Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
            Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

            Comment


            • #7
              There appears to be a whole lot of everything that this administration is unaware of.

              Comment

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