U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen used a hearing on the rocky rollout of the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange to call attention to what he considers a flawed law that threatens to leave more Americans without care because of high premiums.
Paulsen and others grilled Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, about the HealthCare.gov website – and the policy that created it -- during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Her agency was tasked with building and operating the site.
The website is supposed to allow uninsured people to sign up and register for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health care reform law, but the site has been plagued by problems that have prevented people from completing applications.
"Many independent analysts … have been predicting the higher premiums, these cancellations would be coming, you weren't going to be able to keep your doctor or your health insurance even though the promise was laid out by the president," Paulsen told Tavenner. "Directly from our constituents, we're hearing about these challenges."
Tavenner apologized to Americans, saying the exchange's flaws are "not acceptable" and vowed the site "can and would" be fixed by the end of November.
"How do you know the schedule is going to be kept?" Paulsen asked. "What happens if you miss November 30?"
In defending the website, Tavenner said the "system is working, it's just not working as smoothly or as consistently as we want."
The flawed debut of the insurance exchange is tarnishing the Affordable Care Act, Obama's domestic policy centerpiece designed to offer medical coverage to most of the nation's uninsured.