House Democrats voiced growing frustration and anger with the broken Obamacare enrollment site on Wednesday as administration officials tried to reassure them that HealthCare.gov will be repaired.
Democrats, who labored to get the Affordable Care Act through Congress in the first year of the Obama presidency, said they wanted the administration to share details of what’s wrong and when it will be fixed.
“It’s screwed up,” Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said, summing up the whole situation.
The disastrous rollout three weeks ago of HealthCare.gov was obscured initially by the government shutdown, but now it’s Topic A on the Hill. Republicans are pouncing on ineptitude — and demanding delays. They had demanded a briefing too —and House Speaker John Boehner’s office said HHS had agreed and details were being worked out.
“It’s not clear why Republicans were excluded in the first place, but we look forward to getting answers to how the administration botched this enormous use of taxpayer dollars so badly,” a spokesman emailed reporters.
And Democrats are none too happy about all the problems of a program that they have a lot riding on. Expanding health care coverage is a longtime Democratic goal — but it’s also been politically costly and they need it to work.
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