WASHINGTON D.C. — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday personally apologized for those failures of the healthcare website and told lawmakers: “Hold me accountable for the debacle. I’m responsible.”
At the start of the hearing, before the questioning began, Sebelius read a statement and apologized for the problems with the site.
“Access to HealthCare.gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans,” Sebelius said.
“You deserve better. I apologize. I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems.”
Sebelius admitted that the testing done before the Oct. 1 launch was “clearly not” enough. “We did not adequately do end-to-end testing,” she said.
An internal government memo obtained by CNN and written just days before the Obamacare open enrollment warned of a “high” security risk due to a lack of testing of the healthcare.gov website.
“Due to system readiness issues, the (Security Control Assessment) SCA was only partly completed,” according to the memo from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “This constitutes a risk that must be accepted and mitigated to support the Marketplace Day 1 operations.”
Sebelius said Wednesday that she told President Obama the website was “ready to go” for its Oct. 1 launch, adding: “Clearly, I was wrong. We were wrong.”
Additionally, Sebelius deflected charges from Republicans that President Obama misled the American people with repeated claims that those who like their current health plans may keep them under ObamaCare. Sebelius claimed that despite thousands of reported cancellation notices, the White House is keeping its promise.
The secretary said that for the most part, people who had coverage as of March 2010 can keep their current plans — provided their insurance companies haven’t changed them significantly.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, (R-Tenn.) asked Sebelius point-blank: “Is [Obama] keeping his promise?”
“Yes, he is,” Sebelius answered.
“Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari,” Rep. Blackburn said. “You’re taking away their choice.”
Sebelius’ appearance is her first before Congress since the troubled launch of the exchange websites on Oct. 1. Sebelius is facing mounting pressure from high-ranking Republicans to resign.
“I don’t know how you keep your cool, Madame Secretary, with this continuous effort on the part of the GOP to sabotage the ACA, to scare people and bring up red herrings,” said Rep. Frank Palonne (D-New Jersey).
“What I think my colleague’s on the other side forget is that this is not socialized medicine. This is in fact private insurance in a competitive market. And if I’m an insurance company and all the sudden everyone else is selling a better policy with better benefits at a lower price, I can’t continue to sell a lousy, skeletal policy that doesn’t provide benefits and cost more because I’ll be out of the market,” Rep. Palonne said.
After more than three hours and 30 minutes of testimony, the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing ended.
Sebelius is expected to testify again before the Senate Finance Committee on the rollout of ObamaCare, committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said in a statement. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.
