{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=ef4b00e8-7adc-4e50-8eea-45b9f8312878", "Senator Roberts to Secretary Sebelius: Millions More are Losing Coverage Than Signing Up; Renews Call For Her to Resign", "2013-11-06", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "KS", "Pat Roberts", "R000307", "www.roberts.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC -- At a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today confronted U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius over the failure of the Obamacare exchanges and again called on her to resign.\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u201cPeople are angry. Millions of Americans are scared,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know whether they are going to have coverage in a matter of weeks. They don\u2019t know what that coverage will include. They now are getting letters from their insurance companies they don\u2019t understand. In fact, more people are\u00a0losing\u00a0their insurance than are signing up on the website. And they are being directed to a website that doesn\u2019t even work.\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u201cWe don\u2019t often talk about life and death in the context it deserves, but at this time it is real, and it means the difference between life and death for many Americans who are at a loss for what to do. And we know, Madame Secretary, that fixing the website won\u2019t ever fix the uncertainty and ramifications that result from this law.\u201d\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn early October, Roberts was the first member of Congress to call for Secretary Sebelius\u2019 resignation after the failure of\u00a0healthcare.gov\u00a0and amid concerns about the security and privacy of personal health and financial information in the exchange.\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe following are Senator Roberts\u2019 remarks as prepared for delivery:\r\n\u00a0\r\nMadame Secretary, I want to remind everyone how we got here today.\r\n\u00a0\r\nOver a year ago, staff for Members of this Committee requested information on the roll-out of the exchanges. Instead of details we only received \u2018assurances\u2019 that everything would go smoothly.\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn\u00a0March, of this year, we started hearing people directly involved with the development and implementation of the exchanges were deeply worried about the website\u2019s launch.\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn June, the Government Accountability Office issued a report. It should have served as a warning to you as it highlighted implementation challenges that we now know were never addressed.\r\n\u00a0\r\nI want to stress it certainly was a warning to me.\r\nBy July, it was clear to me that your department was being less than transparent about whether the exchanges would be ready by October 1.\r\n\u00a0\r\nAs a result, I introduced the\u00a0Exchange Sunset Act of 2013. \u00a0My bill would have sunset the exchanges and the individual mandate if beneficiaries were unable to enroll starting October 1, as promised.\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn August, the HHS Office of Inspector General identified privacy and security vulnerabilities and determined that \u2018critical tasks remain to be completed in a short period of time.\u2019\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn early September, your main website contractor, CGI, warned the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) they were falling behind on their \u2018highest\u2019 priority items.\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe warning included they may not have enough time in the schedule for testing and that services were intermittently unavailable.\r\n\u00a0\r\nAnd yet, several days later the White House announced that the data hub was \u2018ready for operation.\u2019\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn mid-September, CMS ordered a contractor to make a significant change to the system to require people to submit their personal information before viewing any plans or associated costs.\r\n\u00a0\r\nOn September 26th, mere days before the launch, testing showed that a few hundred visitors crashed the site. The\u00a0very\u00a0next day \u2013 the decision was made to move forward with the launch of HealthCare.gov, knowing that there was a high security risk during testing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nIn short, Madame Secretary, I believe you were given advice, counsel and warning \u2013 from experts inside your agency and out \u2013 that the health care exchanges were not going to be ready.\r\n\u00a0\r\nFurthermore, 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 1/6 of our economy, in jeopardy.\r\n\u00a0\r\nPeople are angry. Millions of Americans are scared. They don\u2019t know whether they are going to have coverage in a matter of weeks. They don\u2019t know what that coverage will include. They now are getting letters from their insurance companies they don\u2019t understand. In fact, more people are losing their insurance than are signing up on the website. And they are being directed to a website that doesn\u2019t even work.\r\n\u00a0\r\nWe don\u2019t often talk about life and death in the context it deserves, but at this time it is real, and it means the difference between life and death for many Americans who are at a loss for what to do. And we know, Madame Secretary, that fixing the website won\u2019t ever fix the uncertainty and ramifications that result from this law.\r\n\u00a0\r\nSo, I have to wonder, if you have any regrets. Any regrets at all that you failed to heed the warnings, that you ignored the calls from Members of Congress, and you proceeded to open the exchanges on October 1, immediately followed by a taxpayer-funded promotional tour to tell everyone, \u2018It\u2019s sort of a great problem to have.\u2019\r\n\u00a0\r\nKansans don\u2019t think these are great problems to have.\r\n\u00a0\r\nAnd from your home town of Topeka, Stephen\u00a0wrote:\r\n\u00a0\r\n\u2018I \u2026 am completely disgusted. I have spent the last two days trying to get my application to go through... This would not be a critical issue except the insurance coverage that I currently have is going away because of the new federal requirements (though we were promised \u2018if you like your current coverage, you can keep it\u2019).\u2019\r\n\u00a0\r\nMadame Secretary, you, yourself, know that this law has serious problems. You delayed over half the mandated deadlines. You did it for employers, for unions, and for small businesses. But not for the exchanges. And not for Stephen nor the millions of other Americans who are losing their health care.\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe worry and the fear are palpable.\r\n\u00a0\r\nYour main goal should have been to protect Americans, to lessen their risk and ensure their safety, but in your zeal to implement this law, not warnings, not advice, not counsel, would deter you from implementing the exchanges. \u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\nYou have said America should hold you accountable, which is why today, Madame Secretary, I repeat my request for you to resign.\r\n\u00a0\r\nSenator Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance. He is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Health. Roberts is also a key member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and is the co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.\r\n\u00a0\r\n-30-", 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://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=ef4b00e8-7adc-4e50-8eea-45b9f8312878"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9128001984208822, "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"}