Senate liberals blast Medicare boss over ObamaCare

WASHINGTON – The official in charge of the glitch-plagued ObamaCare Web site got taken to the woodshed Monday by some of Senate’s most liberal Democrats.

“There has been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the website, cancellation of policies and sticker shock for some people,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), a die-hard liberal and usually a staunch supporter of President Obama, fumed at Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner.

Tevenner, on the hot seat in front of the Democratic-led Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, pledged that HealthCare.gov was getting better every day and that the administration would launch a media campaign to entice Americans back to the site.

“I would encourage folks, if they have not gone onto the website in the last few days, to go onto the website,” she said.

She said the site can now process nearly 17,000 registrants per hour, or 5 per second, with “almost no errors.”

Almost on cue, the Web site crashed again for about 90 minutes in middle of the hearing.

Taverner also admitted that the administration didn’t perform a full security check on the Web site before it launched on Oct. 1.

Concerns that peoples’ personal information is at risk on the site is another issue dogging the ObamaCare rollout.

“We couldn’t test live until we went live,” Tavenner said.

Via: New York Post

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Exclusive: Marilyn Tavenner Did Not Speak Truth Under Oath, Says Victim of Security Breach

A top Obama administration official came under fire Tuesday after her congressional testimony conflicted with the account of a man at the center of the HealthCare.gov security breach.

Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, promised a Senate committee that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had reached out to Tom Dougall, the South Carolina man whose private information was exposed on Healthcare.gov.

That’s not true, said Dougall, who spoke to Heritage following Tavenner’s testimony.

Dougall has called HHS repeatedly since Friday. That’s when he learned his name, address and insurance eligibility had been released to a total stranger in North Carolina. Dougall used the problem-plagued HealthCare.gov in early October, but opted against signing up for insurance.

At a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this morning, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) told Tavenner about Dougall’s experience and asked her why no one from HHS has contacted Dougall:

Mr. Dougall has called [HHS] on several occasions but no one will call him back. Not a single person has taken the time, after having his information exposed, to even call Mr. Dougall back.

But Tavenner protested, promising HHS had already called him:

First of all, Senator Scott, we have reached out to Mr. Dougall several times, and we will find him, and we will follow up on his question.

When Scott offered to give Tavenner all of Dougall’s contact information, she said she didn’t need it and confirmed again that HHS had already reached out. Tavenner even told Scott “we have disagreement there” on whether Dougall had been reached.

Via: The Foundry

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Obamacare: Not Enough Young, Healthy Enrollees to Offset Costs

Younger, healthier Americans needed to make Obamacare financially viable are not signing up in sufficient numbers. Most enrollees have been people over 50, many with pre-existing medical conditions.
 

The skew toward the older crowd raises concerns that there will not be enough payments from young people to offset the cost of providing coverage for the older ailing population, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The early numbers, while statistically too small to draw conclusions, raise concerns about the practicality of the insurance marketplaces.

"We need a broad range of people to make this work, and we're not seeing that right now," Heather Thiltgen of Medical Mutual, one of Ohio largest insurers told the Journal. "We're seeing the population skewing older."

The target enrollee is someone around 40 years if age.

If the drift continues, a more expensive cohort of customers, older and less healthy, would drive up costs for everyone. The federal government had committed to reimburse insurers if they underestimated costs.

This may still not be enough to keep the system afloat should the overall customer pool be appreciably older than forecast.

Widespread problems with the healthcare.gov system serving the 36 states that are not operating their own marketplaces have dissuaded younger, healthier applicants from enrolling. Those who cannot chance being without coverage have persevered.

Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday, Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner said the administration is seeking to remedy the problems with youth enrollment as soon as the website is fully operational.

“Based on our analysis we will have it fully functioning by the end of November,” Tavenner told the committee.

Via: Newsmax

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Gov't 'Encouraging People to Sign Up for Insurance and a Subsidy That They May Not Be Eligible For'

(CNSNews.com) - People who depend on tax refunds may be in for "rude awakenings" under Obamacare, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday.

He said the problem is subsidies and whether people who get them should be getting them.

"The law is, if you are under the age of 26, and you are eligible to stay on your parents' plans, you cannot receive subsidies," Ryan told Marilyn Tavenner, who was called before the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the Affordable Care Act.

"And there is nothing -- nothing -- on your website that tells an under-26-year-old those facts," Ryan said. "So you're encouraging people to sign up for insurance and a subsidy that they may not be eligible for, and they don't even know this."

Under the law, people who get subsidies they should not have received will have their tax refunds docked.

Earlier, Tavenner told Ryan that the healthcare.gov website includes "clear instructions" that you are completing the application under penalty of perjury. "It's very clear, there's also help instructions on each site to explain each process -- what is credible employer coverage, what happens if you're under 26, it is all available on the website," Tavenner said.

Via: CNS News

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Health agency chief refuses to disclose ObamaCare enrollment numbers

The head of the agency responsible for overseeing the troubled HealthCare.gov repeatedly refused to disclose how many people have enrolled in ObamaCare -- during a hearing where she did not deny that officials have that information. 

Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, testified Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee. At the top of the hearing, she apologized for the failures of the main ObamaCare website and vowed to fix them. 

But, raising more questions about the administration's transparency on the project, she declined to cite enrollment numbers. She did not claim, as Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently did, that officials simply do not have those numbers -- rather, she said a "decision" was made to release them in mid-November. 

"We made the decision that we were not releasing the numbers until mid-November," she said. 

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., asked again whether she had any idea what the numbers are. 

Her answer was the same. 

"I'll take that as you don't want to answer the question," Nunes said. 

Via: Fox News

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