HealthCare.gov Development, Decision to Hide Premium Prices from Shoppers was Made One Month Before Launch

HealthCare.gov Development, Decision to Hide Premium Prices from Shoppers was Made One Month Before Launch.

Decision to Hide Prices from Shoppers was Made One Month Before Launch, Contractors Tell Oversight Committee

WASHINGTON – Leaders on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are seeking answers from the Obama Administration’s top technology officials about the development of the problem-plagued federal insurance exchange website, HealthCare.gov, in a letter announced today. Information obtained by the Committee indicates that, just one month before the website’s launch, the Administration directed contractors to change the site’s design to hide price comparisons from unregistered shoppers.

“Given the information gathered by the Committee thus far, we are concerned that the Administration required contractors to change course late in the implementation process to conceal ObamaCare’s effect on increasing health insurance premiums,” the letter to Steve VanRoekel, the Chief Information Officer, and Todd Park, the Chief Technology Officer, at the White House Office of Management and Budget, states. “We believe that the political decision to mask the ‘sticker shock’ of ObamaCare to the American people prevented contractors from using universally accepted and OMB-advocated IT ‘best practices’ in the development and roll out of this massive federal government IT project. When prudent design and programming decisions are subordinated to politics, the result is the chaotic mess we have today.”

The letter, signed by Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Subcommittee Chairmen John Mica, R-Fla., James Lankford, R-Okla., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, cites January 9, 2013 and October 16, 2013 briefings with CGI Federal Inc., one of the major contractors tasked with building the federal health insurance exchange website.

“CGI officials told Committee staff that CMS officials and employees constantly mentioned the ‘White House’ when discussing matters with CGI. For example, CMS officials would routinely state: ‘this is what the White House wants,’” the letter continues. “Moreover, CGI officials told Committee staff that the ability to shop for health insurance without registering for an account – a central design feature of the health insurance exchange – was removed ‘in late August or early September.’”

“Although, CGI officials were not able to identify who within the Administration made the decision to disable the anonymous shopping feature, evidence is mounting that political considerations motivated the decision,” the letter finds.

The Committee has longstanding legislative jurisdiction over federal information technology (IT) acquisition. Most recently, the Committee released a June 2013 staff report on flawed contracting processes for IT purchases at the IRS. The Committee has also sent several letters to Health and Human Services’ Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about contracting practices at HHS and HHS’s role in ObamaCare implementation. In September 2013, the Committee issued a staff report detailing the security risks posed by the Administration’s extralegal Navigator and Assister outreach campaign.

You can read a copy of the letter here: Decision to Hide Prices from Shoppers

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 2157 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-5074 Fax: (202) 225-3974

Weekly Republican Address Ken Cuccinelli 10/19/13 FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT VIDEO

Weekly Republican Address Ken Cuccinelli 10/19/13 FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT VIDEO

In the Weekly Republican Address, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli speaks about the failure of the Obamacare rollout earlier this month, but notes that the President's health care law "was fundamentally broken even before it started." Cuccinelli, the first attorney general in America to challenge the law in federal court, says, "President Obama's ideas are deeply flawed and the implementation of this law has been a national embarrassment. Let me be plain, the law that carries the President's name is the hallmark of a reckless federal bureaucracy that has lost its way."

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT:

“Hello, I’m Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

“Today, our nation and the Commonwealth of Virginia face tremendous challenges. Citizens are seeking leaders who are willing to speak out and stand up for our first principles and take on a federal government that is out of control, eating away our liberty and crushing opportunity.

“This gross government overreach is best exemplified in the so-called Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare represents one of the largest and most reckless expansions of government in the more than 200-year history of our nation.

“I believe that ObamaCare is unconstitutional. I believe it’s an affront to the freedoms and liberties our founding fathers fought to establish on our behalf. I’m proud to say many of those heroes were Virginians, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

“Because I believed ObamaCare was an affront to our liberty, I stood up. I was the first attorney general in America to challenge the law in federal court. And today, I continue to search for avenues to minimize ObamaCare’s hurtful impact on Virginians.

“During the debate over this law, citizens in the Commonwealth were told they could easily access information about their health care choices and join the system, well that proved to be untrue. They were told their premiums wouldn’t increase, that proved to be false. And they were told they could keep access to their insurance and their doctors, and that proved to be downright dishonest.

“Today, our citizens are deeply concerned about what the future holds. What kind of country will we hand to our children? As a husband and proud father of seven, my wife and I share these concerns.

“It's why I stood up and said ObamaCare is not right for Virginia. It’s why I fought alongside 27 other state attorneys general and said ObamaCare is not right for America. It’s why I am sharing this message with you today. I know we can do better…

“My alma mater – the University of Virginia – just announced that it will no longer be able to provide health care coverage to many spouses of their thousands of employees. And just two weeks ago, the Fairfax County Water Authority, a significant government employer in Northern Virginia, announced that it’s going to have to drop coverage for its employees because of ObamaCare’s taxes.

“Everywhere you look, there’s more evidence that ObamaCare was fundamentally broken even before it started. And while our citizens bear the brunt of the law, it seems like big corporations and special interests have gotten exempted. Even Members of Congress are getting preferential treatment, yet everyday Virginians, of whom I am privileged to count myself, are paying the costs and experiencing diminished freedoms.

“President Obama’s ideas are deeply flawed and the implementation of this law has been a national embarrassment. Let me be plain, the law that carries the President’s name is the hallmark of a reckless federal government that has lost its way.

“As Attorney General of a Commonwealth which was one of our nation’s first 13 colonies, and the birthplace of American democracy, I’ll never stand by and watch as our hard fought freedoms are taken away.

“We can do better. We need to provide flexibility and choice within our health care system. Our citizens shouldn’t be forced to choose insurance providers and doctors who’ve been preselected by government bureaucrats. We need to open up the insurance market and allow cross state purchase of insurance to drive competition and lower premiums.

“Physicians are fleeing Medicaid because they're paid so little and have to spend more time completing regulatory paperwork, time they would rather spend treating their patients. Our citizens should be able to choose the health care providers who they believe will provide the best care for their needs, and we shouldn't have to make our healthcare decisions with 16,000 IRS agents looming as the ObamaCare enforcers.

“Most importantly, we need to reverse the perverse incentives that have raised the cost of insurance premiums and have forced employers to drop health care benefits and full-time jobs in order to stay in business.

“Our health care system should be transparent at all levels and provide pricing to inform and empower American families.

“We should support market based solutions for health care reform and empower patients free of government control. More and more government in health care has proven to make it worse, not better! America needs to go the other way, trusting our people and our doctors to work out a system that's best for healthcare, not marching to the senseless beat of some far off government drum.

“If the politicians who gave us this train wreck expect us to live by this law, then the same law without special exemptions should apply to Congress. Is that really too much to ask?

“ObamaCare serves as a grave threat to the future prosperity of the citizens of Virginia, and I’ll continue to resist expanding it. Not just in Washington, but in every state in America. I promise that I'll do my part in Virginia, and I know you'll do yours! Together we can make America better tomorrow than it is today.

“Thank you for listening.

“God bless each one of you.

“And God bless our beloved country.”