'Best and brightest' techies drafted to fix Obamacare computer glitches
Two big problems hit the Obama White House on Oct. 1: the government shutdown, which saw hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, national parks closed, and other disruptions. And the launch of the Affordable Care Act, which was always going to be tricky.
The first problem was solved 鈥� temporarily, at least 鈥� when Republicans and Democrats worked out a stopgap spending deal, also heading off (for now) a government default on its debts. By most accounts, the White House came out the winner, although President Obama was careful not to beat his chest too much about it.
The second problem 鈥� the president鈥檚 signature achievement so far, known as 鈥淥bamacare鈥� 鈥� has only gotten worse.
The White House reported this weekend that about 19 million people have visited HealthCare.gov and 476,000 individuals have applied online for health insurance.
But officials have yet to say how many people have actually bought a policy. In any case, it's a long way from the 7 million people the administration wants to see enrolled for health insurance through online exchanges during the six-month sign-up period.
Computer 鈥済litches鈥� seem massive. USA Today reports that "the federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system."
Mr. Obama, presumably, has been asking sharp questions of his staff.
"I think that there's no one more frustrated than the president at the difficulty in the website," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on NBC's聽鈥淢eet the Press鈥澛燬unday.
The coming week should see significant political activity surrounding Obamacare.
Obama is scheduled to speak about it at a health-care event Monday.
House Republicans, who had predicted for months that Obamacare implementation would be a 鈥渢rain wreck,鈥� have scheduled the first hearings into the severe flaws in the computer system for this coming week, Politico.com reports. So far Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has declined to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
鈥淎s the news continues to get worse, it鈥檚 time for Secretary Sebelius to provide answers to Congress,鈥� the committee said in a statement Friday. Republican lawmakers are particularly miffed that Secretary Sebelius went on Jon Stewart鈥檚 鈥淭he Daily Show鈥� but so far has declined to appear before Congress.
鈥淯ltimately, Secretary Sebelius will testify,鈥� Sen. Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois told 鈥淔ox News Sunday,鈥� although he did not say if 鈥渦ltimately鈥� might include this Thursday鈥檚 scheduled hearing in the House.
Democrats like Senator Durbin and other party leaders in Congress are in an embarrassing spot 鈥� having to publicly support a program that not all favored.
鈥淲hat has happened is unacceptable,鈥� House minority leader Nancy Pelosi聽said Sunday聽on ABC's "This Week."聽鈥淭here is much that needs to be done to correct the situation."
"This has to be fixed but what doesn't have to be fixed is the fact that tens of millions more people will have access to affordable quality health care," she added.
The answer, Sen. John McCain said on CNN Sunday, is to 鈥渟end Air Force One out to Silicon Valley, load it up with some smart people, bring them back to Washington, and fix this problem.鈥�
Apparently, that鈥檚 sort of what the administration has in mind.
In a blog post Sunday, the Department of Health and Human Services said this:
鈥淥ur team is bringing in some of the best and brightest from both inside and outside government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also putting in place tools and processes to aggressively monitor and identify parts of HealthCare.gov where individuals are encountering errors or having difficulty using the site, so we can prioritize and fix them.
鈥淲e are also defining new test processes to prevent new issues from cropping up as we improve the overall service and deploying fixes to the site during off-peak hours on a regular basis.鈥�
鈥淭he initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people,鈥� HHS said 鈥� an acknowledgment with which there is universal agreement.
