WASHINGTON – The official in charge of the glitch-plagued ObamaCare Web site got taken to the woodshed Monday by some of Senate’s most liberal Democrats.
“There has been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the website, cancellation of policies and sticker shock for some people,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), a die-hard liberal and usually a staunch supporter of President Obama, fumed at Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner.
Tevenner, on the hot seat in front of the Democratic-led Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, pledged that HealthCare.gov was getting better every day and that the administration would launch a media campaign to entice Americans back to the site.
“I would encourage folks, if they have not gone onto the website in the last few days, to go onto the website,” she said.
She said the site can now process nearly 17,000 registrants per hour, or 5 per second, with “almost no errors.”
Almost on cue, the Web site crashed again for about 90 minutes in middle of the hearing.
Taverner also admitted that the administration didn’t perform a full security check on the Web site before it launched on Oct. 1.
Concerns that peoples’ personal information is at risk on the site is another issue dogging the ObamaCare rollout.
“We couldn’t test live until we went live,” Tavenner said.
The administration has refused to give out enrollment numbers until mid-November.
Tavenner said that the numbers would be released on schedule next week.
Continued problems with the Web site have sparked fears that too few will sign up for new mandatory health plans, which would undermine the entire ObamaCare law.
Tavenner refused to say if she would support a Republican bill that would enforce Obama’s broken promise that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it” under the health care law.
Pressed by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to take a position on the legislation, she said she hadn’t read the bill and declined to comment.
“The president has said repeatedly, and I looked up the White House website this morning, if you like your plan you can keep it, and you don’t have to change a thing,” Alexander said. “But in fact the plan cancels millions.”
The Americans losing their current health plans because of ObamaCare have become a sore issue for the administration and its Democratic allies.
Tavenner insisted that health insurance policies “routinely change.”
She stressed that Americans who lose coverage will be able to sign up for better plans thanks to ObamaCare.
“These Americans do have a choice. They can choose a different plan being offered by their insurer or they can shop for coverage in the marketplace or outside the marketplace. As insurers have made clear, they are not dropping consumers, they’re improving their coverage options, often offering better-value plans with additional benefits,” she said.
“Yes, maybe some of those plans are more expensive,” added Tavenner.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett, one of Senate Democrats who could face a tough re-election race next year because of ObamaCare, blasted Tavenner for helping prove that the federal government can’t do large tech projects.
“We’re seeing that in spades here,” he said.