WASHINGTON – A top Obama administration official in charge of the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov has suddenly decided to retire, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday.
Michelle Snyder, the chief operating officer at CMS is calling it quits just three months after she oversaw the failed ObamaCare launch Oct. 1.
Still, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, who announced Snyder’s departure in an e-mail to colleagues, heaped praise upon the 41-year agency veteran.
Tavenner called Snyder a “key member” of CMS’ leadership team and urged coworkers to “celebrate Michelle’s dedication to a mission that provides vital health care services to tens of millions of our fellow Americans through the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
She stressed that Snyder had planned to retire in 2012 but stayed on to help with “the challenges facing CMS in 2013.”
Snyder’s role in the Web site fiasco was at the center of a heated exchange when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled by a House committee in October.
“So Michelle Snyder is the one responsible for the debacle,” pressed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Excuse me, congresswoman,” Sebelius fired back. “Michelle Snyder is not responsible for the debacle. Hold me accountable. I’m responsible.”
Since then, Sebelius has weathered repeated resignation calls from Republican lawmakers. President Obama has consistently supported her.
Snyder is the second top CMS official to exit the agency since the Web site disaster. Tony Trenkle, who served as the chief information officer at CMS, retired in November.
Building the dysfunctional Web site and then executing emergency repairs to get it to work are expected to cost taxpayers at least $1 billion.
Most of the glitches were repaired about two months after the Oct. 1 launch of HealthCare.gov, the health plan marketplace for 36 states.
But the rocky rollout of the Web site and other problems with the law’s implementation, including people losing health plans they liked, badly undermined confidence in ObamaCare.
The Obama administration continues to struggle to get people to sign up by the end of the firs open enrollment period March 31, when they hope to have 7 million people on the rolls.
A surge at the end of December pushed enrollment on the federal site over 1 million for a total enrollment of about 2 million including sign-ups on the 14 state-run sites.
The total still falls short of the administration’s enrollment target of 3.3 million for Jan. 1.