WASHINGTON – Departing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a parting shot at the Obama administration Sunday, saying the president’s timeline to ready ObamaCare sign-up Web sites “was just flat out wrong.”
“It was awful. It was awful. But all you could do is say, ‘We’re going to fix it,’” bemoaned Sebelius, as she recalled the disastrous launch of the glitch-riddled Web site.
She called it “a pretty dismal time” and said that she wished she had a “magic wand” to go back in time and help the administration better prepare for the launch.
“The estimate that it was ready to go Oct. 1 was just flat out wrong,” she said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Sebelius, who has been pummeled with constant calls for her resignation since ObamaCare when off the rails, announced last week that she was headed for the exit.
View videoHer departure follows the end of the first open-enrollment period for the new health care program and the administration crowing that 7.5 million Americans signed up.
ObamaCare nevertheless remains unpopular with a majority of voters and a huge liability for Democratic candidates in this year’s elections.
Sebelius’ departure can only help Democratic candidates struggling to shift attention away from ObamaCare.
Sebelius insisted that Obama didn’t give her the boot, saying that she decided that “the end of open enrollment was a logical time to leave.”
But she admitted that Obama didn’t try to convince her to stay.
“Well, I made it pretty clear that that really wasn’t an option to stay on,” Sebelius said of her conversation with Obama about resigning. “I thought it was fair to either commit until January of 2017 or leave with enough time that he would get a strong competent leader.”
Obama nominated budget chief Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who won strong bipartisan support in the Senate for her current job, to replace Sebelius.
Sebelius stood by the administration’s claims that ObamaCare had achieved its goals despite the technical problems.
“People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market,” she said.