Sebelius apologizes for Obamacare headache

WASHINGTON (AP) – Partisan sparks were flying in Congress yesterday as President Barack Obama’s top health official apologized for wasting consumers’ time as they tried to use the crippled website that allows them to buy government mandated health insurance under the overhaul known as Obamacare.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the access problems for the online portal were “miserably frustrating” and that she takes the blame for fixing the system by the end of November.
She said the website was improving daily, but as the hearing got underway, consumers trying to log in from Virginia got this message: “The system is down at the moment”.
“Hold me accountable for the debacle,” she said at the opening of a contentious hearing before the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I’m responsible.”
Beyond the bungled start-up of the massive overhaul, Republicans have argued the troubled website glitches are proof the government is incapable of managing the complex program.
Obama’s White House legacy depends heavily on whether his massive overhaul of the U.S. health care system will succeed, and so far it’s been an embarrassment. The United States had been the largest developed nation without a national health care system.
Sebelius testified as another controversy brewed over a wave of cancellation notices hitting small businesses and individuals who buy their own insurance. Republicans say that contradicts one of Obama’s earliest promises about the health law: You can keep your plan if you like it. Obama’s promise dates back to June 2009, when Congress was starting to grapple with how to cover millions of uninsured Americans.
The cancellations affect some of the five per cent of Americans who buy health insurance on the private market. The rest have coverage through their employers or through the Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and poor. The cancellations affect policyholders whose coverage now falls short of new standards in the health care law.