“Now we’re seeing people’s personal information put at risk, and we’re seeing the damage the law is doing to the labor force. President Obama says it’s working just the way it’s supposed to. That’s what he says. The President is wrong.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s speech.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke about how despite President Obama’s rosy reviews, Healthcare.gov is still not “working the way it’s supposed to.” Barrasso points out that recent breaches in security have left Americans’ private information vulnerable to fraud and hackers.
Excerpts of his remarks:
“This past Sunday before the Super Bowl, President Obama sat down for an interview. The President was asked about the failure of his Healthcare.gov website.
“He talked how there are always glitches with technologies but then he said this about the website. He said it got fixed within a month and a half, he said it was up and running and then he said now it’s working the way it’s supposed to.
“According to the President of the United States Healthcare.gov is now working the way it’s supposed to.
“The President of the United States is in denial. This is an incredible statement that he has made.
“I find it especially hard to believe when I looked at ‘The Washington Post’ the next morning, on Monday, the day after the President’s interview where he said that it’s working the way it’s supposed to, and you look at that headline on the front page of ‘The Washington Post’ on Monday, ‘Health Site Can’t Handle Appeals. Thousands of requests for fixes filed but unprocessed.’
“Filed but unprocessed—is that what the President of the United States means when he says now it’s working the way it’s supposed to? Is the President oblivious to what is happening in this country with his signature piece of legislation?
“According to this article, tens of thousands of people who discovered the Healthcare.gov made mistakes. That’s what they discovered, the website made mistakes as they were signing up for a health care plan and they were confronting a new roadblock, that government cannot yet fix the errors.
“Well, the President may think he’s perfect but there are a lot of errors with his website and to say that it is working the way it’s supposed to, to me cites presidential denial. 22,000 people, the article says. Is that what President Obama means when the website is working the way it’s supposed to?
“One woman quoted in the article, I’m talking about the front page of ‘The Washington Post,’ above the fold. One woman quoted in the article says that because of a mistake by the website she’s paying $100 a month more than she should, her deductible is $4,000 too high. She said she needed the insurance and now she’s stuck.
“Well, was that what President Obama thought this website was supposed to do?
“Was it supposed to overcharge this woman a hundred dollars a month, set her deductible too high by $4,000? Was it supposed to prevent her from appealing that mistake?
“Here’s another headline that ran on Monday, the day after the President’s interview. It was in the ‘Anchorage Daily News in Alaska.’ It says ‘Enroll Alaska mistakenly releases hundreds of email addresses.’
“Alaska is one of the states that hasn’t done their own exchange. They’re part of the federal exchange. It uses Healthcare.gov. The article says Enroll Alaska mistakenly released over 300 email addresses Monday afternoon when an employee sent out a mass message about a Healthcare.gov glitch without masking its’ recipients.
“So, number one, there was a glitch, they went to tell people about the glitch—remember, the President says it’s working the way it’s supposed to. So there was a glitch, they sent out an email explaining the glitch and they end up releasing all of the people’s personal email addresses when they’re trying to point out to the incompetence of the website in the first place.
“Is that the way President Obama thinks that things are supposed to work with his website?
“This is the kind of security issue that many of us have been worried about from the beginning.
“People have to provide a lot of their personal information to this website. Financial information, health information, social security number, demographic information, and there’s just not enough assurance that the information is being properly protected.
“So this time they sent out people’s email addresses, maybe next time they’ll send out people’s social security numbers, their health information, their financial information, or other personal information.
“Now, that’s not even talking about the lack of security on the website, and whether hackers can break in and steal information. This is just human error, carelessness and what people connected to the site are sending out by mistake.
“It’s a very real concern. For the President to not take this seriously—and I believe he doesn’t take it seriously. I believe he has his head in the sand on all of this—he’s dug in on this law. For the President to not take this seriously and say that everything is going the way it’s supposed to, that is a very real problem with the man in the White House.
“Now, that’s just the website. That’s what the President was talking about in that interview. What else about the health care law is working the way it’s supposed to?
“Is it the millions of people who will be dropping out of the labor force because of the law? On Tuesday morning the Congressional Budget Office said that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
“Here’s how the paper has reported it. ‘The New York Times’: ‘Health Care Law Projected to Cut the Labor Force.’
“The Wall Street Journal’: ‘Health Law to Cut Into Labor Force’.
“Here’s how ‘The Hill’ put it: ‘Obamacare will cost 2.5 million workers by 2024’.
“Is that the way the Obama Administration thinks its health care law is supposed to work? Well, they’re actually saying yes, that it is. Jason Furman, the President’s top economist said the health care law is helping labor markets, helping businesses, it’s helping jobs.
“Helping labor markets? Because of the failed policies of the Obama Administration we have the lowest labor force participation rate in 35 years.
“People have given up looking for work. The administration should be doing all that it can to increase the labor force participation, not celebrating that its health care law is going to push that number even lower.
“Middle-class Americans all across this country have seen their insurance premiums go up significantly because of the health care law’s costly mandates. They’ve seen their deductibles go up. Millions of hardworking Americans have had their insurance policies canceled. Why? Because of the law.
“Now we’re seeing people’s personal information put at risk, and we’re seeing the damage the law is doing to the labor force.
“President Obama says it’s working just the way it’s supposed to. That’s what he says. The President is wrong.
“The website is not working and his health care law isn’t working. It’s not working for the American people. The website is just the tip of the iceberg.
“People are finding they can’t keep their insurance even if they like it, front page story today, ‘Wall Street Journal,’ harder to keep your doctor even if you want to keep your doctor, in spite of the President’s promise.
“We have millions who have their policies canceled. Others are losing their doctors. We’ve seen premium costs go up. We’ve seen deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses go up. And the issue of security fraud.
“The website is a problem, the website failures is just the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s time to get rid of this terrible health care law, replace it with real reform before it does any additional damage to America’s labor force and to the American people.”
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