Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner apologizes for healthcare.gov failure

By United Press International October 29, 2013 12:22 pm

The agency head tasked with overseeing the troubled U.S. healthcare insurance website apologized that the website hasn't worked as well as it should."We know that consumers are eager to purchase this coverage," Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, testified Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee. "I want to apologize to you that the website hasn't worked as well as it should ... and I want to assure you that healthcare.gov can and will be fixed."
Political battle lines were drawn early in the hearing with Democrats ripping House Republicans for the 44 attempts to repeal or defund all or part of the Affordable Care Act and Republicans blasting the Obama administration for widespread problems they said cannot be fixed.
"While a website can eventually be fixed, the widespread problems of Obamacare cannot," Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., committee chairman, said in his opening remarks. "Almost daily we hear of reports of Obamacare increasing costs, harming job creation and forcing Americans off their current plans. These problems can't be fixed through a technical surge or tech surge, and they're not just a glitch in someone's healthcare coverage or job."
"We start this hearing facing a basic reality -- Democrats want to make the Affordable Care Act work; congressional Republicans don't," said Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., the committee's top Democrat.
In her opening remarks, Tavenner said the website, plagued with timeouts and error messages, "has not lived up to our expectations ... and is not acceptable."
She also expressed confidence that the site would be operating more smoothly at the end of November.
Repeatedly asked if she knew how many people actually enrolled, Tavenner said that information would be available in November.
She also addressed the issue of policyholders receiving cancellation notices from their carriers and a barrage of questions from Republican members concerning statements that individuals could keep their healthcare coverage.
Tavenner said existing insurance policies, in many cases, did not meet required standards and were reformulated to meet the standards, including 10 essential coverage items. In compliance with the healthcare law, she said, new policies will provide more benefits and pay a larger share of medical costs than many existing policies.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, asked Tavenner what she would tell his constituents who were losing their current insurance but could not get coverage yet on the federal website.
"My constituents are frightened," Brady said. "They are being forced out of healthcare plans they like. The clock is ticking. The federal website is broken. Their healthcare isn't a glitch."
Tavenner said consumers could seek help from a call center established by the government. To enroll, she said, "there are more methods than just the website."
"The system is working," she said. "We'd like for it to work better."
NBC News reported Monday more than 7 million Americans with health insurance plans that don't meet minimum standards under the new law would have to upgrade to the new, more expensive plans that meet the standards next year, which the network said meant those people would lose their current healthcare coverage.
The report alleged the Obama administration knew about this, despite Obama's continued assertions nothing in the Affordable Care Act required people to change what they had.
The network said the law's regulations in 2010 estimated 40 percent to 67 percent of customers would have to give up their existing policies because of the new minimum standards as well as normal insurance turnover.
Policies existing before 2010 are protected from this rule by a grandfather clause, but the clause applies only if the healthcare plan hasn't changed significantly since 2010, such as in the plan's deductible, co-pay or benefits.
"It's true that there are existing healthcare plans on the individual market that don't meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
"There are some that can be grandfathered if people want to keep insurance that's substandard," he said.
President Obama supported the health law Monday, citing a new report showing nearly half of uninsured single, young adults in the United States, or about 1.3 million people, could sign up for health insurance for $50 or less a month after tax credits.
Some 1.9 million could pay $100 or less a month, while 1 million more could qualify for Medicaid, the Department of Health and Human Services report said.
"Less than your cellphone bill, less than your cable bill," Obama told Fusion, a new cable channel from ABC News and Univision.
As recently as late September, Tavenner predicted the Affordable Care Act website would have a smooth Oct. 1 start.
But the federal website -- for residents of the 36 states that chose not to create their own state healthcare exchanges -- has been marred by serious technological problems from its debut, making it difficult for individuals and small businesses to sign up for health insurance.
The Obama administration has promised the site will be fixed by the end of November.
"We will focus on oversight of why the testing did not occur, why the administration told this committee repeatedly that they were on track when they were not, the uncertainty this is causing for Americans trying to sign up, wondering if their doctor will still take their coverage, seeing cancellations of their current healthcare plan," a Ways and Means Committee spokeswoman told The Washington Post.
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