Obama bemoans health care signup woes
Print Edition
United States President Barack Obama yesterday said there was “no excuse” for the cascade of computer problems that have marred the rollout of key elements in his health care law, but declared he was confident the administration would be able to fix the issues.
“There’s no sugarcoating it,” Obama said. “Nobody is more frustrated than I am.”
The president said his administration was doing “everything we can possibly do” to get the federally run websites up and running. And he guaranteed that everyone who wants to get insurance through the new health care exchanges will be able to.
The troublesome rollout has been a glaring embarrassment for Obama’s signature legislative achievement and could impact next year’s congressional polls as well as the president’s legacy.
Yesterday’s event in the White House Rose Garden had the feeling of a health care pep rally, with guests applauding as Obama ticked through what he sees as benefits of the law.
The president insisted the law is about more than just a website. “The essence of the law, the health insurance that’s available to people, is working just fine.”
The White House says more than 19 million people have visited HealthCare.gov since the site opened on October 1.
Administration officials initially blamed a high volume of interest for the frozen screens that many people encountered when they first logged on to the website. Since then, they have also acknowledged issues with software and some elements of the system’s design.
However, the White House has yet to fully detail exactly what went wrong with the online system consumers were supposed to use to sign up for coverage. And Obama yesterday did not explain the problems in detail or why they were not fixed before sign-ups opened.
The president did acknowledge that the failures would provide new fodder for opponents of the law, often referred to as “Obamacare.” With the website not working as intended, “that makes a lot of supporters nervous,” he said.
But he said, “it’s time for folks to stop rooting for its failure.”
In an ironic twist, the troubles with the health care rollout were overshadowed at first by Republican efforts to delay or defund the law in exchange for reopening the government during the 16-day shutdown. The bill that eventually reopened the government included no big changes to the health care law.
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