Health Mandate Won’t Be Delayed, Sebelius Says
By: Robert Pear (NY Times) March 2014
WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said Wednesday that the Obama administration would not extend the deadline for people to sign up for health insurance or delay the requirement for most Americans to have coverage.
And she declined to say whether the administration was still committed to its original goal of enrolling seven million people in private coverage through federal and state exchanges by March 31.
Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Ms. Sebelius said categorically that the administration would not delay the “individual mandate,” under which most Americans must have insurance or pay a tax penalty. In addition, she said that officials would not extend the six-month open enrollment period, scheduled to end on March 31.
Ms. Sebelius reported Tuesday that 4.2 million people had selected health plans through the federal and state exchanges from October through February.
Representative James B. Renacci, Republican of Ohio, noted that the number of sign-ups was well short of the administration’s original goal and asked, “What do you now call success?”
“At best,” Mr. Doggett said, “less than 10 percent of exchange-eligible Texans have selected a plan. In other words, more than 90 percent of the people whom we wrote this law to get exchange coverage have not been covered.” In parts of the state, he said, it is nearly impossible for consumers to obtain “in-person assistance” in selecting a health care plan.
So far, according to the latest data from the federal government, 295,000 people in Texas have selected private plans through the federal marketplace.
Ms. Sebelius said state laws and other barriers had made it hard for Texans to learn about and take advantage of the new insurance options. State officials in Texas, which has the highest uninsured rate of any state, rejected the expansion of Medicaid and declined to establish their own health insurance marketplace.
Representative Tom Reed, Republican of New York, noted that in a special congressional election in Florida this week the Democratic candidate defended the health care law but said it should be “fixed.”
Ms. Sebelius said she was open to possible changes, but had not sent any draft legislation to Congress. However, she said, “We have implemented a number of changes in the way the law was written to ease the transition into the marketplace” for consumers, insurers and employers.
Other Republicans on the committee focused their criticism on the administration’s handling of the rollout.
Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, expressed disbelief when Ms. Sebelius said she did not know how many of the 4.2 million people selecting health plans had paid the premiums required to complete their enrollment. She said the data would be available when the government finished building a “fully automated financial system” for the exchanges.
Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, said that, with so many changes and delays by the administration, her constituents were “really confused about what this law does and doesn’t do and what applies to them.”
