{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223034352/http://www.scott.senate.gov/press-release/republican-health-committee-senators-confront-administration-about-obamacare-failures", "Republican Health Committee Senators Confront Administration About Obamacare Failures", "2013-11-05", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 At a hearing of the Senate health committee today, Republican senators questioned Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on the rollout of the health care law\u2014specifically, canceled insurance policies, higher premiums, the broken website and related security issues.\n\u00a0\nOn canceled insurance policies:\n\u00a0\nSenator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the committee\u2019s senior Republican, said to Tavenner: \u201cLet me suggest that a way to fix this problem of canceled policies in the individual market is to go to a website that does work pretty well. It still says: \u2018If you like your plan you can keep it and you don\u2019t have to change a thing due to the health care law.\u2019 That\u2019s the White House website. And those are the president\u2019s words in 2009. So why don\u2019t we put those words into law?\u201d\n\u00a0\nSenator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said: \u201cOn Saturday, 2,600 people in Wyoming had their policies cancelled. Three years ago I noticed that the rules were changing and that people would not be able to keep what they had been promised. We had a little debate on a resolution I introduced to repeal the rule that would prevent them from keeping the policy they like. It was voted down on party lines and I think some people will be paying for that in the next election.\u201d\n\u00a0\nEnzi, an accountant by trade, also asked CMS to assure the HELP Committee that the firm responsible for the website would not be paid any additional money to fix its own mistakes to date.\n\u00a0\nOn higher premiums:\n\u00a0\nSenator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said: \u201cThe tremendous failures of the Obamacare website are only the tip of the iceberg. This law presents far more problems and challenges, but the biggest ones of all are the premium increases for the people who can least afford them. For example, in rural Georgia, premiums are more than doubling in some cases and health care costs are going through the roof. On behalf of those Georgians, I demand that the administration address these problems. We need to make sure that requiring so much coverage does not have the unintended consequence of running people out of their coverage rather than providing them with the coverage they need and can afford.\u201d\n\u00a0\nOn security issues:\n\u00a0\nSenator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) asked Tavenner: \u201cOne of the requirements is end-to-end testing, but, again, you signed on September 27th the authority to operate the website and the memo noted this, and I quote, \u2018from the security perspective, the aspects of the system that were not tested due to the ongoing development expose the level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk for federally facilitated marketplace systems.\u2019 Did you bring that security concern to the Secretary\u2019s attention and the OMB\u2019s attention?\u201d\n\u00a0\nTavenner responded, \u201cI did not.\u201d\n\u00a0\nSenator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) asked Tavenner: \u201cWe keep getting assurances from the administration that the data within the failed healthcare.gov website is secure and that patient privacy is protected, but where is the proof? They won\u2019t share the data with us. What are the administration\u2019s plans for protecting privacy? Why can\u2019t they be transparent? Who is accountable for this mess?\u201d\n\u00a0\nOn the broken website:\n\u00a0\nSenator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said: \u201cAs of the 29th of October, Enroll Alaska confirmed that there were three Alaskans who had successfully enrolled. \u00a0There is nobody else who has stepped forward to say they successfully enrolled in the exchange from Alaska\u2026 One of the things that was troubling in that meeting was to hear that the three people who have enrolled have been given incorrect information.\u201d\n\u00a0\n\u201cUnlike what some might believe here, the sun does not rise and set over Washington, DC or in Eastern Standard Time. So when a family finishes up dinner, does the dishes and puts the kids to bed in Alaska, 9pm is 1am. At the time period when Alaskans can sit and move through any aspect of this exchange, you\u2019re shutdown. \u00a0When will this site be available for all Americans to take a look at?\u201d\n\u00a0\nSenator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said in the hearing, \"This is a tale of two beltway bandits,\" referring to the contractors responsible for implementing healthcare.gov, CGI and QSSI. \"Taxpayers deserve to know the full details of where their money is going, particularly in light of this disaster.\" He went further to ask if they can stop the next scheduled payment of $100 million to CGI Federal.\n\u00a0\nSenator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said: \u201cWe are now 30 days into one of the greatest website disasters in history. After nearly $400 million, healthcare.gov is synonymous with failure. The public trust has been broken.\u201d\n\u00a0\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223034352/http://www.scott.senate.gov/press-release/republican-health-committee-senators-confront-administration-about-obamacare-failures"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9207199327647686, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}