WASHINGTON
- Contractors for the troubled Obamacare website sought to deflect
blame as more Democrats voiced concerns about the implementation of
President Obama's signature healthcare law.
Full Article
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More Democrats voice Obamacare concerns as website blame goes around
By David Morgan and Mark Felsenthal
WASHINGTON |
Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:22pm EDT
(Reuters) - The contractors for the government's troubled healthcare
website sought to deflect blame on Wednesday as more Democrats voiced
concerns about the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy.
Administration
officials, in damage-control mode for nearly a week, held a closed-door
briefing for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and a
private session with insurance company executives, who said they would
assist in efforts to fix the Healthcare.gov website.
Websites are the primary vehicle for consumers to shop for insurance through exchanges set up under the healthcare program.
With
the rocky launch of the "Obamacare" insurance exchanges entering its
fourth week, additional Democrats came forward, some urging the
president to extend the open-enrollment period for buying health insurance through the program beyond the existing March 31 deadline.
One
Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he would join a
Republican effort to delay the so-called "individual mandate," that
requires people to buy insurance or face a tax penalty.
Manchin,
in a Fox News interview on the "The O'Reilly Factor," called for a
transition year with no fines. "Let's work through the problems. We've
got a lot of problems, they have been identified. I think everybody has
recognized them. Let's fix it. Let's get together and fix things," he
said.
White House officials said on Wednesday that enrollment requirements were being changed so that consumers could sign up for health insurance
right up to the March 31 deadline and avoid penalties. Some people
previously needed to be signed around February 15 to meet the end of
March deadline.
A White
House official said that pushing back the sign-up requirement was not
related to glitches with Healthcare.gov, but was simply an effort to
eliminate confusion over the two deadlines.
The
comments from the handful of Democrats posed a new potential hazard for
the White House and gave Republicans a chance to portray their efforts
to derail the healthcare program as bipartisan.
Democratic
Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who faces a tough re-election race next
year, said he agreed with fellow Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New
Hampshire that the open enrollment period to sign up for insurance
should be extended beyond March 31, 2014.
Representative
James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat,
criticized the website for forcing consumers to provide private
information before deciding what kind of health insurance plan they want
to buy.
"I've talked to
too many people who tell me before they ever get around to figuring out
what it is they want to buy, they're having to answer questions that
they don't feel they should be answering," Clyburn said.
CONTRACTOR TESTIMONY
Republicans
said they would intensify their investigations into the launch of the
2010 Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare."
"It
is our job to hold them accountable, and when it comes to Obamacare
clearly there is a lot to hold accountable," House of Representatives
Speaker John Boehner told reporters.
The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday will hear from the top contractors
responsible for the program. They included website developer CGI
Federal, a unit of Canada's CGI Group Inc, which said in prepared
testimony that the software from another contractor designed to allow users to create an account led to early bottlenecks.
But the other contractor, United Health Group unit Quality Software
Services Inc (QSSI), said in prepared testimony that some of its
problems stemmed from a late decision by the administration to require
consumers to register for an account before browsing for insurance
products.
"This may have
driven higher simultaneous usage of the registration system that
wouldn't have occurred if consumers could 'window shop' anonymously,"
said QSSI.
The company's
software is now keeping pace with demand. Andrew Slavitt, executive vice
president with QSSI's parent, said the software has had "error rates
close to zero" since October 8.
Obama
administration officials, including U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, met with the chief executives of 14 leading
insurance companies, including Aetna Inc, WellPoint Inc and Humana Inc.
The
executives agreed to form new technical teams with the administration
to help fix the website, which provide online access to the marketplaces
designed to be the main way for millions of uninsured Americans to
research and buy health insurance plans under the law.
"We
had a candid discussion on the challenges facing the exchange, and the
plan that is being put in place to get the program on track," Aetna Inc spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said.
The
October 1 debut of the exchanges was marred by technical glitches that
have kept many from signing on and making purchases. Those unable to
sign up online can call a toll-free telephone number as an alternative.
The administration has so far declined to disclose the number of enrollments, either online or by telephone.
'WORKING HARD TO FIX THE PROBLEMS'
A
prolonged delay in getting Healthcare.gov to work could jeopardize
White House efforts to sign up as many as 7 million people in 2014, the
first full year the law takes effect. The administration this week began
what it called a "tech surge," bringing in experts led by the
administration's top economic aide Jeffrey Zients to analyze and fix the
problems.
"I think what
we learned is they're working hard to fix the problems," Representative
Sander Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means
Committee, said after Wednesday's briefing.
The
U.S. Health and Human Services Department will begin regular news
briefings on Thursday to provide updates on "the progress that's being
made and on the efforts that are being undertaken, both to address the
technical problems and to make the whole experience for American
consumers better," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
House
Democrats said there was no discussion in the briefing about whether
the problems should lead to a delay of the individual requirement that
every American have insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Congressional
Budget Office has estimated a delay would reduce enrollment
significantly.
REPUBLICANS DEMAND DELAY
Republicans,
who have fought the healthcare law as an unwarranted extension of the
federal government, said the requirement should be delayed until the
problems with the rollout are resolved.
"With
so many unanswered questions and the problems arising around this
rollout, it doesn't make any sense to impose this one percent mandate
tax on the American people," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told
reporters on Wednesday.
Republicans
have repeatedly tried to derail or delay the healthcare law since
taking control of the House in the 2010 elections. They demanded more
answers on Wednesday about the scope of the problems.
Three
committees in the Republican-controlled House have announced
investigations of the law's rollout, which Cantor described as "nothing
short of a debacle."
(Additional
reporting by Amanda Becker, Richard Cowan, Roberta Rampton and Susan
Heavey in Washington, Caroline Humer in New York; Writing by John
Whitesides; Editing by Fred Barbash, Karey Van Hall, Grant McCool and
Tim Dobbyn) Copy http://www.reuters.com/
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