After grilling CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Republican members of Congress are moving up the chain of command to find who to hold accountable for the misfire of the Obamacare health insurance exchange website. Todd Park, chief technology officer of the United States has been subpoenaed to appear before a House GOP-led committee hearing on Wednesday.
In a Nov. 8 letter accompanying the subpoena, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Park “is the only witness unwilling to appear voluntarily” at recent congressional committee hearings to explore the problems with Healthcare.gov.
Over the last few weeks, administration officials have said the website is functional, though slow, and will steadily improve to full speed by the end of November.
Supporters of Park have launched a website, “Let Todd Work,” to gather signatures of those who want to prevent Park from testifying. More than a thousand people have signed, including Aneesh Chopra, the former and first-ever U.S. CTO.
“In his career, Park created and launched the first Health Data Initiative, supported and promoted the wonderful Blue Button Initiative, and created the Presidential Innovation Fellowship, a program that's brought innovation to government and saved taxpayers millions of dollars,” the website asserts.
The “Let Todd Work” website also urges Republicans and Democrats to work together on pushing Obamacare forward.
At an Oct. 28 House hearing, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) expressed frustration with his “alarmist” Republican colleagues for being quick to judge the success or failure of Obamacare on the first few weeks of roll-out. Republican-sponsored Part D, the prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries, also had a slow start, he said, yet Democrats waited six months for a hearing.
“Our country does have a problem with healthcare and all the computer programmers in the world can’t fix it,” McDermott said. “ACA is now law folks; stop this kind of sniping. Make it work.”
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Sebelius, Tavenner ask Senate for more time
Glitches in healthcare.gov have not altered public opinion
