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| Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner pauses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing as the panel seeks reassurances about problems with the debut of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans on the committee emphasized their longstanding criticism of the law, citing examples of cancellations and increased costs while raising questions about cyber-security for healthcare.gov. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Under growing pressure, the administration refused repeatedly to
state a position Tuesday on legislation formalizing President Barack
Obama's oft-stated promise that people who like their existing coverage
should be allowed to keep it under the new health care law.
Senate
Democrats spoke dismissively of the proposals, signaling they have no
intention of permitting a vote on the issue that marks the latest
challenge confronting supporters of "Obamacare."
An
earlier controversy appeared to be ebbing on a law that has generated
more than its share of them. Even so, one strong supporter of the health
care law, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R. I., good-naturedly told an
administration official, "Good luck getting through this mess."
Whitehouse
spoke to Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the agency deeply involved in
implementing the law. She had assured lawmakers that initial flaws with
the government's website were systematically yielding to
around-the-clock repair effort.
"Users can now
successfully create an account and continue through the full
application and enrollment process," said Tavenner, head of the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "We are now able to process nearly
17,000 registrants per hour, or 5 per second, with almost no errors."
She
encouraged consumers to log onto the site and check it out, and said
the administration had estimated that enrollments will total 800,000 by
the end of November.
At the same time, she
repeatedly refused to tell inquiring Republicans how many enrollments
have taken place to date, saying that information would be made
available at mid-month.
Across the Capitol,
that reluctance drew a subpoena from Rep. Dave Camp, the Michigan
Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. He said the
material was "critical government information" that the administration
has refused to provide voluntarily, and demanded that it be turned over
by Friday.
Tavenner also sought to reassure lawmakers who expressed concerns about cybersecurity at http://www.healthcare.gov .
Sen.
Tim Scott, R-S.C., cited the case of a Columbia, S.C. attorney, who
used the website to look for coverage, only to learn later that some of
his personal information had been made available to a different browser,
a man in North Carolina.
"Has this happened
before?" Scott asked. "Can you guarantee that Social Security
numbers...are secure? Will you shut down the website, as my friends from
the left have already suggested, until security issues are fixed?"
Tavenner
offered reassurances, and said officials from her agency were
attempting to get in touch with the man whose information had been
disclosed.
Scott said what the "consumer sees is not what's going wrong, it's that their confidence is going down."
The
controversy over the ability of consumers to keep their existing plans
flared last week, when insurance companies mailed out millions of
cancellation notices, often citing the new health care law as the
reason.
House Republicans intend to vote as
early as next week on legislation that permits insurers to reinstate the
canceled plans, which fall short of the coverage requirement under the
health care law. One Democrat, Sen.
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, has
proposed requiring insurers to do so.
But the
Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Democrats had
voted unanimously against similar proposals in the past and were having
"foxhole conversions."
"I think what will be
really interesting to see in the Senate is the number of Democrats in
very red states who are up in `14 and what they start demanding ... in
terms of adjustments to this law," he said.
At
the White House, press secretary Jay Carney refused repeatedly to state
a position on the proposals, saying he hadn't "reviewed or seen an
examination internally" on any of them.
Shifting
the focus away from what Obama has said repeatedly, the spokesman said,
"The world back to which many critics want us to go, is a world in
which insurers have that power to say that, you know, your relative, who
has a pre-existing condition either has no chance of getting coverage
or is going to be charged so much that he or she can't afford it."
In
words Republican critics cite frequently, Obama pledged in mid-2009:
"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period"
and "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your
health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
In
recent days, Obama and top aides have sought to amend or clarify the
pledge, a tacit acknowledgement that it hasn't been kept.
Like
Carney, Tavenner sidestepped questions on the subject, telling Sen.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and other committee members she hadn't read
the legislation in question.
A few hours
later, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., showed no enthusiasm for
permitting a vote on the measure introduced by Landrieu, who is seeking a
new term in what is potentially a difficult race in a swing state.
"We'll have to see," he said, noting that hundreds of bills are
introduced in the Senate each week.
Tavenner
took her seat in the witness chair in a different atmosphere from a week
ago, when she testified before a House panel and apologized to the
public for the poor performance of the website.
This
time, Alexander and other Republicans said almost in passing they
assume the website woes will be repaired, and focused on areas of cost,
cancellation and security concerns.
Sen.
Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., displayed a sign behind his seat saying, `Tip of
the iceberg' that showed a pale blue iceberg floating in water. Above
the waterline, the iceberg was labeled `website failures.' Below were
examples of reported health care law problems including canceled
coverage, higher co-pay and deductibles, premium increases and fraud and
identify theft.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an
Alaska Republican, said as of Monday, only three people in her state had
been able to enroll, and added there were concerns that they had done
so on the basis of incorrect information.
Alexander said "Obamacare" had resulted in thousands losing coverage through a state program in Tennessee.
Committee Democrats were less pointed, although Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland cited consumer confusion.
"I
think it's very confusing about where you go," she said. "I can tell
you, people really don't know, they really, really don't know."
There were also expressions of urgency from Democrats.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., asked if the website in use in his state could be streamlined.
When Tavenner said she would look into the issue and get back to him, he said: "Can we do that today?"
