Care act. Followed by the Supreme Court oral argument examining prayers before government meetings. Later, Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau director richard cordray. Is now called the Mercedesbenz Superdome in new orleans where the new Orleans Saints play. Built entirely at public expense after hurricane katrina. When it hosted Football Games again, that was a national feel good story and rightly so. But the public paid for all the repairs and the leak put in a token amount per the public it is invested at about 1 billion. Owns the new Orleans Saints keep so most all of the revenue generated there. One reason people dont rebel against this is that they dont understand it is taking place. The second reason is that there they feel there is nothing they can do about it area it is largely based on inside heels and the most recent time there was a vote was in miami last year on whether to use public money to renovate the place where the Miami Dolphins play in the citizens of miami voted strongly against doing that because they got to vote on it. Author Gregg Easterbrook tonight at 8 00. House and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the Senate Finance committee. She talked about fixing the andthcare. Gov website enrolling people through exchanges across the country. According to reports, next week, her agency is set to release in roman figures for the first month the health there a Just Healthcare kid was open. This hearing is 2. 5 hours. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] we will come to order. In february, 1958, against a backdrop of a divided nation, the junior senator from massachusetts spoke at Loyola College in baltimore. The young senator named john kennedy said, let us not seekir but act. Let us not the republican answer or the democratic answer but the right answers. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past but except their own responsibility for the future. Later, the5 years jfk advice still rings true and its important for us to remember now as we implement the Affordable Care act. Five weeks ago, the administration launched the federalov, insurance website was to be the main vehicle for millions of americans to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care act. Needless to say, it has been a rocky rollout. Problems have plagued the website and limited the ability of americans to buy the Health Insurance they need and deserve. Let me say right off the bat that this is unacceptable. Tohas been disappointing hear members of the administration say they did not see the problems coming. Sibelius, last time you came before this committee, i used two words to voice my concern about the implementation of the law. Since then, my words have been twisted and maligned. Make no mistake i believe in this law. I spent two years of my life working on the Affordable Care act act and theres nothing i want more for it then for it to succeed. Months ago, i warned that if a nipple mentation did not improve, the marketplace might struggle. I warned that if implementation did not improve, the marketplace might struggle. On updates were unsatisfactory. We heard multiple times that everything was on track and we now know that was not the case. Thats in the past. Now its time to move forward and figure out how to fix it. Madame secretary, you deserve credit for coming before congress and the American People and accepted responsibility for the website problems. Your focus is where it should be them on the future. Its very clear to me that you are working as hard as you can to fix healthcare. Gov. Keep that. Keep at it. We made a promise to the to fix a broken system. We made a promise to ensure that all americans have access to quality Affordable Healthcare. We made a promise to ensure that no one ever went rogue just because they got sick. You, madame secretary, must make good on that promise. Some people have called for your resignation. We cannot fix the past. Helpeed to stay at hhs and get the marketplace is working. You said recently you expect the website to be running smoothly for a majority of users by late november. There is no room for error. You must meet and i prefer you beat, that deadline. Because these market lysis open the door to quality care for millions of americans who lack Health Insurance. Congressional Budget Office said millions of americans would get health care. 10 years, that number will grow to 24 million. That cant question happen unless the market is run at full speed. I believe you will fix the problems because you know how critical the market laces are. For the First Time Ever, they guarantee consumers will have access to highquality comprehensive insurance. Consumers will never he forced into bargainbasement plans or refusal of Services Like child birth or cancer treatments. They will never be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions buried they will never be cut off because they get an annual or lifetime limit. We already have examples of how the marketplace is our helping real people. Consider these three stories from letters i have received since october 1. Gary from billings, montana said the monthly premium he pays for his family of four is just over 2000. Nextys monthly premium for year will be 1100 6065 thanks to the Affordable Care act. Allison from wolf point, montana wrote to say that thanks to the act, she will have access to insurance for the first time in almost 20 years. She suffered an injury in college and because of that preexisting condition, the cost of insurance was prohibitive. Instead, she rations business to the doctor, cut back on other activities. Skiing, no hiking, no or spec writing but now, she will have access to high quality coverage she can afford. She looks forward to being active again. ,ony, Small Business owner wrote in to express his excitement at getting insurance on the market lacewell save his business 10,000 per year. As a smallbusiness business owner, i can and pathetically state that the Affordable Care act is not only good for my business, it is the only place i can of ward to provide Health Insurance for my family of employees. 10,000he can reinvest he saved into staffing, training, and the heart grow to his Business Needs to stay competitive. He added this is good for my company, myself, my employees, my family, my tenant, and our country. Thats a pretty impressive list. I have no doubt that stories like these will keep coming in over the weeks and months ahead especially once the market laces are running at full speed. Marketplaces are running at full speed. I was glad to hear you want healthcare. Gov to be running at full speed. The purpose of this here is not to affix blame but to shed some light on where things stand. More importantly, to learn what the administration is doing to correct these problems and if there is a role for congress to help, we want to be there. Thats what matters right now. As president kennedy said, let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the republican answer or the democratic answer but the right answer. Lets get this done. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks for scheduling todays hearing. Thank you, secretary stability is for being here today. It has nearly six months since you last appeared before the committee. Given all that has gone on during that time, especially with the implementation of obama care, i would like to say that todays impairments is long past due. When you are here back in april, you assured us the implementation was on track. And the exchanges would be ready october 1 and it appears your statements were at best misinformed. From where i said, things do not seem to be going smoothly at all. In fact, i think we would agree the best part of the implementation of the Affordable Care act has been an absolute debacle. You admitted as much last week when you testified before the house energy and commerce hold mee when you said accountable for the debacle. Madamesponsible for it secretary, while im glad you are accepting responsibility for this disasters rollout, i would have preferred that you and the rest of the administration were honest with us to begin with. Perhaps in april, you mightve thought things were on track but you had to have several indications before october 1 that there were problems with the website and the exchanges. It is simply inexcusable that the members of this committee were not told earlier that these problems were occurring. Was not for want of asking. I personally send you a number of letters asking for details and implementation of the health care law. Many of them were ignored entirely. Toward alier attitude Senate Committee over your agency is, to put it simply, appalling and is to be rectified. Has been anyonth indication, there are likely to be numerous additional problems ahead. It is only proper you provide this committee with more regular updates on the issues with which you are dealing. I would ask that you come here once a month for the next six months to provide this committee with status updates on implementation of obama care and i hope you will agree to do so. Problems youat have encountered thus far were not unforeseen. To separate reports, one from the Government Accountability office in june and another from the department of health and Human Services office of the Inspector General in august identified significant implementation challenges months ahead of the october 1 deadline. There is no indication that the warnings from these two independent nonpartisan were heatedatchdogs by the administration or that any thought was given to delaying the start of date as a result. When you were here april 1, i raised concerns about whether adequate testing was occurring to ensure that privacy controls were in place for the exchanges. Fact, i specifically asked you about having an independent review of the entire system before it went live to ensure that all appropriate privacy and security controls were in place. You assured me that all testing protocols were being followed and that privacy issues were a high priority. However, we know that no ends of the testing occurred. In fact he officials knew on september 27 that there was a high Security Risk to the system if it went on as planned. My colleagues and i sent several letters since the spring asking for more information. What privacy controls are being implemented as part of the Exchange Infrastructure . We asked for details about whether or not testing was being done to address the privacy and security concerns we had raised. To date we have not received any answers to those questions. So, not only can millions of americans not log into the website successfully, but those who have actually succeeded could now find themselves at the mercy of identity thieves across the globe. I would call this a less than ideal situation for our constituents. Bringing us to another set of issues that i hope you will be able to shed some light on later today. Let me start with a simple premise. Words matter. We have all heard the golden saying that honesty is the best policy. Unfortunately this wisdom does not seem to apply to the obamacare pledges. More and more promises made at this time or made at the time that this law was passed are currently proving to not be reality on a daily basis. That Health Care Reform would reduce costs by 2500 for the average family. The truth is with all the new mandates going into effect, the cost of Health Insurance in this country is projected to rise at remarkable rate. Some studies, including one from the Manhattan Institute, estimated that individual premiums will increase by 99 for females 99 for males and 62 for women nationwide. And then obama saying that if you could if you like your health care and like your doctor, you could keep it, this has proven to be simply untrue. This is why the Washington Post , gave him for pinocchios. This represents the highest level of untruthfulness. You really have to try hard to get for pinocchios. You do not simply get it for making a misstatement. It was not until the last few weeks that people in the administration and the white house started trying to be right with the president said. Lets be candid. It was not a new honest streak that change their tone, it was the fact that americans started receiving cancellation notices from their insurers. According to the associated press, 3. 5 Million People have received these notices so far. Put simply, there is a long track record of broken promises to this committee and the American People with respect to how this law should or would work and the impact it would have. I hope that that will stop today. No more caveats, no more excuses , just give us the truth. Answers like we dont know and we were wrong are perfectly acceptable as long as that is the truth. I want to thank you again, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. As you can see, we have a lot to discuss. I want to thank you, madam secretary, for being here. I know it is not the most pleasant thing you can do, but the fact of the matter is that these are the jinnah questions that have to be answered by you and others in charge of these programs. I have not even gone into i expect he will be able to get this the i. T. Problems solved , the Information Technology problems solved. That does not even begin to answer the questions about why Small Businesses are now will not employ more than 49 people because they trigger a huge, huge expense under this i think very poorly thought out plan to begin with. Thank you, senator. Secretary sibelius, thank you madam secretary for appearing today. I appreciate your taking time to explain what is going on here. Obviously your statement will be included in the record. You know the drill. Take as long as you want to summarize, this is a very important matter. Tell us what you want to say. Thank you, chairman, ranking members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to update the committee on the final Implementation Phase of the Affordable Care act. The law that passed both houses of congress was signed by the president and upheld by the Supreme Court and gives millions of americans an opportunity to obtain Affordable Health coverage. This is the first opportunity for Many Americans to get coverage, including People Living in pain with chronic illnesses, young adults whose employers do not offer insurance , and parents struggling to keep up with mounting bills. In the last five weeks, access to healthcare. Gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for far too many of these americans. It is unacceptable and i am focused on fixing it and am accountable. I recognize that there is an even higher level of accountability. Accountability to the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling americans who deserve Better Health care. The impact on the lives of everyday people is getting lost. I know this because i hear their stories cause a stories, as i am sure many of you do. We have a team of experts working on an aggressive schedule so that the Consumer Experience on the web gets better every day. As the chairman has said, by the end of november they are committed to having the site working smoothly for the vast majority of users. For we do not have is a fully functioning system yet that consumers need and deserve. We do have a plan in place to identify, prioritize, and manage the remaining axes across the system. We have reinforced our team with dozens of key personnel from the government and private sector, including respected engineers, technology managers, and software developers, designers and analysts from company like oracle and red hat. They are helping to diagnose problems and making quick decisions to analyze, troubleshoot, prioritize and resolve issues in real time. As this work continues we know that americans are shopping for plans, signing up and enrolling online on paper, on the phone, and in person. In fact, more than 2 Million People have already called the call center with an average wait time of less than 30 seconds. I want to share with the committee a few indications of progress, what we have improved and what we intend to fix of the problems that remain. The two major areas of for of focus our performance dealing with speed and reliability, and functionality, fixing the bugs and other problems in the system. In the first few weeks after the launch of healthcare. Gov, users had to wait an average of eight seconds for pages to load, today takes typically less than a second. One month ago viewing the health land took minutes, today takes seconds. Many consumers use to see a blank screen at the end of the application process. Today they see if they are eligible for financial assistance, the next step in the process. Users are receiving far fewer error messages and timeouts and are now able to process nearly 7000 registrants per hour with almost no errors. We have m