A day after Democrats lost a special election in Florida that may have turned in part on the backlash against the Obama health law, a U.S. House hearing featured bipartisan complaints about what the Obama Administration is not making public and how much help is being given to Americans trying to get coverage.
Much of the hearing was familiar ground, with Republicans critical of the health law and Democrats defending the law against GOP attacks.
But there was one very interesting set of observations from one Democrat, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who has been a strong supporter of the Obama health law, as he joined Republicans in demanding more information about the how the law is being implemented.
"So much of the original promise of the Affordable Care Act has been undermined by faulty implementation," said Doggett, who went on for a solid four minutes about his concerns without letting the HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius get a word in.
You can see his worries in full at http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4486955/questions-hhs-secretary-sebelius
"Instead of circling the wagons against all the political arrows that are shot against this plan, we need a little more accountability, and we need to insure the next enrollment period is not handled as poorly as the last one," complained Doggett, who chided Sebelius and the Obama Administration for not doing more to assist those who are having troubles signing up for coverage.
"This is much more than a website problem," said an obviously frustrated Doggett, who said "taxpayers deserve to get their money's worth."
Immediately after Doggett spoke, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) followed up by echoing Doggett's call for information about the actual number of Americans who have paid for their insurance through the health exchanges, a number that HHS has not released.
"How many of those have signed up, that have enrolled in Obamacare, have paid their premium?" Price asked.
"I can't tell you that, sir, because I don't know that," Sebelius answered, explaining that the information was held by private insurance companies and not the federal government.
That didn't wash with Republicans.
The debate over the Obama health law is not over, and won't be, even after the 2014 elections.
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