Obamacare Failure
By
Associated Press November
14, 2013 6:55 am
WASHINGTON -
Planting a paltry number on a national disappointment, the Obama administration
revealed Wednesday that just 26,794 people enrolled for health insurance during
the first, flawed month of operations for the federal "Obamacare"
website.
Adding
in enrollment of more than 79,000 in the 14 states with their own websites, the
nationwide number of 106,000 October sign-ups was barely one-fifth of what
officials had projected - and a small fraction of the millions who have received
widely publicized private coverage cancellations as a result of the federal
law.
The
White House raced to reassure anxious Democrats who are worried about the
controversial program, which they voted into existence three years ago and which
seems sure to be a major issue in next year's election campaigns. The
administration, trying to regain the initiative, for the first time indicated a
willingness to consider legislation to stave off the wave of cancellations
that's compounding the website technology problems.
"Read More"
Some
Democrats are seeking changes in Obama's signature program, and key Republicans,
many pressing for repeal, said that even Wednesday's feeble sign-up figures
appeared to be pumped up. The final number - 106,185 people - would be even
smaller if it counted only those who finalized their enrollment by actually
paying their first month's premium, Republicans said.
Administration
officials and senior congressional Democrats expressed confidence in the
program's future. "We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the
next five months," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,
who is in overall charge.
"Even
with the issues we've had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling,"
Sebelius said. Responding to GOP critics, she said the first premiums are not
due until Dec. 15.
The
online, state-level insurance markets were envisioned as the new portal to
coverage for people who don't have health plans on the job. But the federal
market was overwhelmed by technical problems when it opened Oct. 1, and the
experience of state-run markets has been mixed.
The
administration said an additional 1 million individuals have been found eligible
to buy coverage on the markets, with about one-third qualifying for tax credits
to reduce their premiums. Another 396,000 have been found eligible for Medicaid,
the safety-net program that is shaping up as the health care law's early success
story.
For
many Democrats, concerns over the cascade of website problems has been
compounded by the focus on Obama's misleading promise that Americans who liked
their health insurance plans could keep them under the overhaul. But millions of
people are receiving cancellation notices. They have plans that for various
reasons don't qualify for the law's "grandfather clause" protection against
cancellations.
Obama
has said he's sorry that people are losing their coverage and has vowed to find
ways to address "holes and gaps" in the law. Advisers originally said the White
House was considering administrative fixes, not legislative
options.
On
Wednesday, Obama spokesman Jay Carney said, "If we can achieve this
administratively, we will certainly look at that possibility," but he added that
the White House was also considering legislative ideas.
Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled an all-Democrats meeting Thursday
with White House health care officials.
Republicans,
meanwhile, are holding hearings to keep the overhaul's problems in the spotlight
ahead of an election year.
"It's
kind of interesting to see as Obamacare implodes how everybody's running for
cover," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky said, "Obviously, panic has set in on the other
side."
The
administration has staked its credibility on turning the website around by the
end of this month. From the president on down, officials have said that
HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov.
30. They have not specified what "running smoothly" means.
The
day was another blow for the administration and its supporters in Congress, who
had been counting on Obamacare as a neutral if not winning issue in next year's
midterm elections.
Three
more swing state Senate Democrats seeking re-election in 2014 signed onto
legislation drafted by Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to ensure that anyone
liking their current coverage would be able to keep it, an attempt to resolve
the issue of cancellations.
In
the House, meanwhile, majority Republicans set a vote for Friday on legislation
to permit insurance companies to continue selling existing policies that have
been ordered scrapped because they fall short of coverage standards in the
law.
On
daily media calls, Health and Human Services department officials have described
a situation where problems get fixed and then new issues crop up as consumers
are able to venture further into the website. It's a bit like traffic heading
back to a city late on a summer Sunday: You get past one jam, and odds are you
run into another.
There
was a hopeful sign this Tuesday when Julie Bataille, HHS communications director
for the rollout, said that 275,000 people who got hung up in the early days are
being invited back to try to complete their applications. The administration is
sending the email invitations in batches, so as not to risk any disruptions.
White House chief technology officer Todd Park told Congress on Wednesday that
system response times are much faster, and error rates have
plunged.
But
other signals have raised questions. In a blog post on Saturday, Bataille quoted
chief White House troubleshooter Jeff Zients as saying improvements would
continue in "December, January, February - just like you do with any
website."
Asked
whether the Nov. 30 target was still achievable, Bataille said on Tuesday, "I
want to be clear that our plan remains the same. We are on a path to make
improvements week by week so that by the end of November, the site will be
working for the vast majority of users."
It's
unlikely that Congress will let the website repairs flounder much beyond Nov.
30. Millions of lawmakers' constituents who are losing current individual
policies would have to select new plans by Dec. 15 to avoid a break in
coverage.
The
main federal website is central because other enrollment routes, from call
centers to counselors to paper applications received by mail, all depend on
having that access.
In
Congress earlier Wednesday, the House's chief investigator plunged into the
technical issues behind the dysfunctional rollout.
Rep.
Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, is investigating a long list of issues: insufficient testing,
possible security flaws, design shortcomings - even allegations of political
meddling.
"Established
best practices of our government were not used in this case," said Issa. As a
result, the law's promise of affordable health insurance "does not exist today
in a meaningful way." Like other Republicans, Issa wants the law repealed, not
fixed.
Ranking
Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland questioned Issa's
fairness.
Addressing
Issa directly, Cummings said: "Over the past month, instead of working in a
bipartisan manner to improve the website, you've politicized this issue by
repeatedly making unfounded allegations."
---
Associated
Press writer Anne Flaherty, Julie Pace and David Espo contributed to this
report.
----
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2013/11/14/obamacare-failure/?subscriber=1
Comments