A New York Times investigative article based on two dozen interviews with industry insiders and confidential Obama Administration documents reveals that the catastrophic $500 million Obamacare rollout “has deeply embarrassed the White House” and has the technology companies involved “publicly distancing themselves” from the Obamacare fiasco.
“These are not glitches. The extent of the problems is pretty enormous,” an insurance executive who participated in Obamacare conference calls told the Times. “At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.'”
The Times says those closest to the three-and-a-half year-long building of Obamacare, like embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ignored or quashed the myriad warning bells sounding all around them. On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee released a #FireSebelius web ad calling for Sebelius’s ousting.
“We foresee a train wreck,” one insurance executive working on Obamacare IT said in February. “We don’t have the IT specifications. The level of angst in health plans is growing by leaps and bounds. The political people in the administration do not understand how far behind they are.”
The comments mirror those made in April by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) who helped craft Obamacare. At the time, Baucus said Obamacare was “a huge train wreck coming down.”
Now, the companies that bagged millions to build the Obamacare digital architecture are scurrying to avoid public ridicule and scrutiny. “Worried about their reputations, contractors are now publicly distancing themselves from the troubled parts of the federally run project,” reports the Times.
Development Seed President Eric Gundersen told the Times his company built the busted HealthCare.org website but “had nothing to do with what happened after a user hit the ‘Apply Now’ button.”
Oracle, which was subcontracted to handle identity management software used in the Obamacare registration process, claims its services are running swimmingly. “Our software is running properly,” said Oracle communications vice president Deborah Hellinger.
One of Obamacare’s biggest winners of taxpayer dollars has been CGI Group. Washington Examiner reporter Richard Pollock says that the U.S. subsidiary of Canadian company CGI (which stands for “Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique”) Group, CGI Federal, received a no-bid sweetheart contract worth $93 million. Since 2009, CGI has scored $678 million in taxpayer money for 185 separate task orders.
Even progressive Democrats are now blasting Obamacare’s failures.
Former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama should fire those responsible for the “excruciatingly embarrassing” Obamacare rollout.
Progressive Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, a strong Obamacare supporter, wrote on Monday that “So far, the Affordable Care Act’s launch has been a failure. Not ‘troubled.’ Not ‘glitchy.’ A failure.”
Obamacare will cost taxpayers $2.6 trillion over the next ten years.