WASHINGTON — Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius fumbled for an excuse Wednesday to get out of enrolling in ObamaCare herself — falsely declaring that it would be “illegal.”
Pressed to voluntarily sign up by Republican lawmakers at a confrontational congressional hearing, Sebelius offered up the excuse that it was against the law for her to give up her employer-sponsored federal insurance plan.
“It’s illegal,” insisted Sebelius, who is President Obama’s point person on implementing the national health-care law and answering for the defective ObamaCare Web site.
Legal experts contradict Sebelius’ claim, which she made under oath. “She could legally do so,” Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, told The Post. “Anyone who is a resident of a state, lawfully present in the US and not incarcerated can purchase insurance through an exchange.”
Most people with insurance through their job wouldn’t want to give it up to buy ObamaCare because they’d lose the employer contribution to the cost of the premiums.
Insurance companies would be prohibited from selling a policy to Sebelius, 65, if she had Medicare. But she claimed to have insurance through her employer, meaning the federal government.
“If I have affordable coverage in my workplace, I’m not eligible to go into the marketplace — that’s part of the law,” Sebelius said.
These mistruths were part of a series of missteps as she lost her cool and stumbled through a 3¹/₂- hour House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the disastrous rollout of Obama’s signature initiative.
As lawmakers prodded her to say she’d enroll if she could, a hot mike caught Sebelius whispering, “Don’t do this to me.”
Dozens of Republican lawmakers have called on Sebelius to resign over the Web-site disaster, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Sebelius took the blame for the glitch-riddled HealthCare.gov, where Americans are supposed to sign up for mandatory health insurance by March 31 or face penalties. She took pains to shield Obama from blame for what she called the “miserably frustrating experience” the uninsured are having while trying to sign up.
“Let me say directly to these Americans, you deserve better. I apologize,” she said. “I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems.
“Hold me accountable for the debacle. I’m responsible.”.
She became exasperated as Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) pressed her about whether “the president is ultimately responsible for the rollout?”
“Whatever,” Sebelius sighed. “Yes, he is the president. He is responsible for government programs.”
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) told Sebelius, a former Kansas governor, that she was living in “Oz” when she kept promising all would be well in a few weeks.
“Well, Madam Secretary, while you’re from Kansas, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” he said.