Sebelius set to face grilling over health care website

In prepared remarks for Wednesday's testimony, Sebelius says 'The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people.'Scott Olson/Getty Images

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will say in testimony Wednesday that the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov 'is not acceptable,' a day after another Obama administration official apologized for glitches with the website.

Sebelius is likely to face tough questioning from Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee over technical problems that have kept many Americans from signing up for coverage through the online insurance exchanges - a key part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Lawmakers are also likely to press the HHS secretary for firm numbers on how many people have so far enrolled in plans through the health exchanges. To date the Obama administration has refused to divulge the actual figure, with officials stating that it will not be available until mid-November. The issue of some individuals receiving cancellation notices from their existing health care provider is also likely to come up.

In remarks prepared for her testimony, Sebelius said: 'The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people and is not acceptable,' adding 'we are committed to fixing these problems as soon as possible.'

Sebelius is also expected to make the case that the ACA, or Obamacare as it has come to be known, has delivered 'quality, affordable health insurance' and that the millions of visitors to the ACA's website demonstrated that 'people want to buy this product.'

With opponents of Obama's health care reforms seemingly eager to make as much political capital as possible over the faulty launch of the health care website, a growing number of Republicans in Congress are calling for Sebelius to step down or be fired over glitches that have dogged people trying to sign up for coverage since the state-based health exchanges opened for business on Oct. 1.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Senate Health Committee, on Tuesday joined the list of GOP lawmakers calling for Sebelius to go.

'Taxpayers have spent $400 million to create exchanges that, after 3 1/2 years, still don't work,' Alexander said. 'No private sector chief executive officer would escape accountability after such a poor performance.'

Consumers have complained that the site is slow, locks up and often kicks them off before they can complete their application.

'I want to apologize'

On Tuesday, Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner was questioned for nearly three hours by members of the House Ways and Means Committee. During the grilling, she delivered the most direct mea culpa yet from the administration regarding the website problems.

'I want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should,' she said.

Tavenner said the website is improving and the problems should be resolved by the end of November, giving consumers ample time to get coverage by the March 31 deadline.

The Medicare chief was also asked by members of the committee about why many of their constituents were getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies.

'So what happened to the 'If you like your insurance, you can keep it' question?' asked Republican Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Camp was referring to one of Obama's earliest promises about the health law: You can keep your plan if you like it.

As early as last spring, state insurance commissioners started giving insurers the option of canceling existing individual plans for 2014, because the coverage required under Obama's law is significantly more robust. Some states directed insurers to issue cancellations. Large employer plans that cover most workers and their families are unlikely to be affected.

The law includes a complicated 'grandfathering' system to try to make good on Obama's pledge. It shields plans from the law's requirements provided the plans themselves change very little. Insurers say it has proven impractical. The cancellation notices are now reaching policyholders.

Tavenner blamed insurance companies for cancelling the policies and said most people who lose coverage will be able to find better replacement plans in the health insurance exchanges, in some cases for less money.

President Obama, meanwhile, will speak about health care in Boston, Mass. Wednesday afternoon. The president plans to speak about the embattled law from Boston's historic Faneuil Hall. In 2006, then-Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney was joined by now deceased Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sign the state's health care overhaul bill - on which the ACA was in part modeled.

The White House said Obama planned to point out Massachusetts' own sluggish start to the state's sign-up rate to health care reforms that later proved highly successful.

Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor who advised both Romney and Obama on the development of their laws, told HEALTHYINSURANCENEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM that only 123 paying consumers signed up the first month of the Massachusetts law, with 36,000 coming on by the time penalties kicked in for failing to have insurance.

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