Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), testified to the Ways and Means Committee this week on the Obama administration’s disastrous rollout of the ObamaCare exchanges and their malfunctioning website. Here are some examples of how her answers to my questions contradicted her previous statements:
·
Ms. Tavenner’s conversation with
Rep. Pitts during her August 1, 2013 testimony to Congress (Note
that Rep. Pitts asked her about the ObamaCare exchanges, not the data hub):
Rep. Pitts:
“Do the contractors who HHS is paying to build these exchanges have certain targets or milestones
that they have to meet?”
Ms. Tavenner:
“Absolutely.”
Rep. Pitts:
“Can you tell us today that every contractor has met these targets and is on
time?”
Ms. Tavenner:
“Yes sir, I can.”
Ms. Tavenner’s answer
to my question about that conversation: “If I remember the
questions correctly, what Congressman Pitts was asking me related to the hub,
and the hub was progressing on time and on schedule, [it] still is. The hub has
actually operated pretty much flawlessly, and most of the questions were around
the hub.”
· Ms. Tavenner’s written testimony
submitted for her October 29, 2013 appearance before the Ways and Means
Committee: “CMS has a track record of successfully overseeing
the many contractors our programs depend on to function. Unfortunately, a subset of those
contracts for HeathCare.gov have not met expectations.”
Ms. Tavenner’s answer
to my question about that testimony: “I don’t think I said
that [the problem with HealthCare.gov] was due to a subset of contractors.”
To sum up: Ms. Tavenner told Congress on August 1,
2013 – just two months before the exchanges became operational – that all the
contractors creating the exchanges were meeting their targets and were on time.
Then for her October 29 appearance before Congress, she submitted written
testimony blaming the critical problems with the exchanges and the website on a
subset of contractors. When I asked her about that, she denied having said it.
Additionally, when asked by me and several other congressmen how many people
have managed to get through all the HealthCare.gov glitches and actually enroll
in the exchanges, Ms. Tavenner refused to answer, saying CMS would not release
those numbers until mid-November.
Just for fun, let’s end with one more quote,
this one from President Obama himself:
“This is the most transparent administration in
history.”
