WASHINGTON – The Obama administration won’t even answer questions from its own Democratic allies about the glitch-riddled ObamaCare website.
Administration officials were long on promises but short on specifics about fixing the buggy website Wednesday when they met with House Democrats behind closed doors at the Capitol, said participants.
“Everybody’s upset. Everybody’s pushing back and asking the same questions,” Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) told The Post.
During the hour-long meeting, senior officials from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t answer questions about when the problems would be fixed or how many people have signed up for ObamaCare so far.
A day earlier, reporters peppered White House spokesman Jay Carney with the same questions and also couldn’t get straight answers.
A slew of technical bugs have stubbornly blocked access or frustrated navigation of the site, www.healthcare.gov, where Americans are supposed to sign up for mandatory health insurance plans by March 31.
“They are optimistic that it will be very soon that it will be fully functional. We didn’t get a specific date,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).
Most Democratic lawmakers, who helped pass ObamaCare in 2010 when their party controlled all of Washington, remained staunch defenders of the law and the administration.
“The good new is everybody in there was extremely upbeat,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told reporters outside the meeting room.
Inside the meeting, the officials assured lawmakers that “the bugs are being fixed every night,” said Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.).
But the lawmakers were left guessing when the sites will be fully operational and how many people have sign up so far.
“They are not telling people that yet. Hopefully they’ll release that at the end of the month,” said McNerney.
Later Wednesday, top administration officials including HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were meeting with chief executives of Wellpoint and Humana, two of the nation’s largest insurance companies, about Obamacare.