ObamaCare: Time for heads to roll?

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is in damage control mode in the wake of the glitches and failures of ObamaCare’s grand unveiling. Her op-ed in USA Today calls the government’s ObamaCare website “simple, user-friendly.” She also appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But her next appearance might be in...

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is in damage control mode in the wake of the glitches and failures of ObamaCare’s grand unveiling. Her op-ed in USA Today calls the government’s ObamaCare website “simple, user-friendly.” She also appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

But her next appearance might be in front of Congress.

The committee is very interested in finding out why, despite evidence to the contrary, HHS officials testified under oath that the federal government-run state health exchanges would be up and running on Oct. 1.

But this questioning might be just the tip of the iceberg.

ObamaCare health insurance exchange websites have not been fully functioning since ObamaCare’s launch at the beginning of this month, and people calling in for assistance have faced hourlong waits – if they get through to anyone at all. The House Energy and Commerce Committee wants to know what went wrong, and they want to see enrollment numbers, which the administration has kept under wraps.

Software and design defects were the real culprits behind these malfunctions, not high web traffic as administration officials enthusiastically claimed, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper’s investigation and consultation with experts found that: “The website is troubled by coding problems and flaws in the architecture of the system, according to insurance-industry advisers, technical experts and people close to the development of the marketplace.”

Even the usually optimistic USA Today editorial board had some scathing remarks for the Obama administration:

“[Chief Technology Officer, Todd] Park said the [Obama] administration expected 50,000 to 60,000 simultaneous users. It got 250,000. Compare that with the similarly rocky debut seven years ago of exchanges to obtain Medicare drug coverage. The Bush administration projected 20,000 simultaneous users and built capacity for 150,000.

That’s the difference between competence and incompetence.”

The truth hurts. But a failing, billion-dollar health scheme hurts taxpayers even more.