SEBELIUS UNDER FIRE

In an exchange with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas., Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated Wednesday that it was possible convicted felons could be hired as ObamaCare ‘navigators,’ giving them access to personal information like Social Security numbers and addresses of anyone signing up for the program.

Sebelius made the admission during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, the second time in a week she was on Capitol Hill, forced to defend the problem-plagued ObamaCare website.

“Isn’t it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check,” Cornyn asked her.

“That is true,” Sebelius answered. “States could add in additional background checks and other features, but it is not part of the federal requirement.”

Cornyn pressed, “So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them?”

Sebelius answered, “This is possible.”

The last time Sebelius testified before a House committee, she fell on the sword, personally apologizing for the failures.

“Hold me accountable for the debacle,” she said. “I’m responsible.”

Lawmakers from both parties have harshly criticized the health insurance exchange website rollout and her agency’s lack of foresight about the massive problems.
 

 

Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts called for her resignation. He spoke at length during the hearing, expressing his disappointment at the lack of information provided to Congress throughout the website’s development – including some warnings of problems ahead by government investigators.

“In short, Madam Secretary, I believe you were given advice, counsel and warning from experts inside your agency and out that the health care exchanges were not going to be ready. Furthermore, I believe to protect the administration, you chose to ignore these warnings, and as a result, you have put our entire health care system and one-sixth of our economy in jeopardy.”

“You have said America should hold you for — accountable, which is why today, Madam Secretary, I repeat my request for you to resign,” he said.

 

 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the abrupt retirement of the chief information officer, in the first high-level departure since the botched HealthCare.gov launch last month.

In my opinion, the computer glitches should not be the focus.

In the past, I’d have said the focus should be the constitutionality of the bill, but quite frankly, today’s admission concerns me.

The idea that my employer is required by the federal government to perform background checks on all employees who handle personal health information (we subcontract with Medicare health plans), but the federal government does not impose the same requirement on their own employees is one I find very alarming.

With identity theft as rampant as it is, we're not going to screen who we allow to access our citizen's personal information?

Doesn't that seem a little short-sighted?

Can't this administration do anything right the first time?