She’s taking lemons and making a lemon peel.
ObamaCare is still impossible to access over the Internet for many, but Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is somehow staying focused on the positive — like the one portion of the complex system that actually works.
In an upbeat — if out of touch — blog post, Sebelius pointed to the level of interest in the ObamaCare and the speed of the “data hub,” one small part of the system behind HealthCare.gov.
She said it took the hub less than 1.2 seconds to route information, and called it “a model of efficiency and security.”
“The Hub is on the job, and so are we,” crowed Sebelius, who will face a grilling from Republican lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday.
The hub, which connects to the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service to verify applicants’ identity and income, was developed by Quality Software Services Inc. (QSSI), a unit of health insurer UnitedHealth Group.
Meanwhile, President Obama got defensive in his weekly Internet address on Saturday, blaming Republicans for blocking Obamacare and claiming that he would “never stop fighting to help more hardworking Americans know the economic security of health care.”
“Some people have poked fun at me this week for sounding like an insurance salesman, and that’s OK,” he said. “I’d still be out there championing this law even if the Web site were perfect.”
HealthCare.gov. has been plagued with delays and error messages since it rolled out on Oct. 1, embarrassing Obama and his underlings, who’ve been scrambling to fix the problems.
Obama announced Friday that QSSI would now serve as “general contractor” to oversee repairs by the end of November so the Web site can be salvaged in time for Americans to buy insurance by the end of the year.