Sebelius Pushes Back Against Calls For Resignation
As a congressional panel probes problems with the federal health care website, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited an insurance call center in Phoenix, saying experts are working around the clock to fix the site. That message was repeated Thursday by officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during their first briefing on the repairs.
USA Today/The Arizona Republic: Sebelius Promises Fixes To Health Care Site
As a congressional panel probed her agency's oversight of the federal health care website, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday during a visit to Arizona that a team of government and private-sector technology experts are working around the clock to fix the problem-filled website. Following a tour of a Phoenix call center that handles enrollment and a community health center, Sebelius acknowledged that the website, Healthcare.gov, has not operated as seamlessly as she had hoped when it launched Oct. 1 (Alltucker, 10/25).
The Associated Press: Sebelius Visiting Phoenix Call Center Amid Ongoing Glitches In Health Care Enrollment
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is visiting Phoenix amid calls for her resignation after the clunky rollout of insurance exchanges under the new federal health care law. The former Kansas governor and the Obama administration’s point person on the health law’s implementation will tour an HHS call center on Thursday (10/24).
Politico: Kathleen Sebelius Hits Back At Critics
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a swipe at those calling for her resignation over the troubled launch of the Obamacare enrollment site, saying she doesn’t work for them. “The majority of people calling for me to resign, I would say, are people who I don’t work for and do not want this program to work in the first place,” Sebelius said Thursday during a press availability, according to the Associated Press (McCalmont, 10/25).
CNN: Sebelius Pushes Back, Determined To Make Obamacare Website ‘Perfect’
Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is again pushing back against calls for her resignation over the rocky rollout of the Obamacare website, saying “we are determined to make it perfect.” While visiting a health insurance call center in Phoenix on Thursday, Sebelius stuck to the Obama administration’s line that the functionality of the online insurance marketplace Healthcare.gov is improving. "People are going through every day,” she said. “It's better today than it was on October 1, but it's a long way from perfect and we are determined to have it be perfect. But what we are is three weeks into a 26-week open-enrollment period, in football terminology early in the first quarter” (Aigner-Treworgy, 10/24).
Politico: CMS Obamacare Briefing Day One: It's Getting Better
The Obama administration’s tech "surge" to repair the Obamacare enrollment system may be more of a slow crawl — but a senior official said Thursday she’s confident the system will be running smoothly for consumers by mid-December. The agency quarterbacking the repair process told reporters Thursday that any fixes to HealthCare.gov would be “incremental.” Consumers may not even detect them (Cheney, 10/24).