{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=356875", "Congressman Griffith's Weekly E-Newsletter 10.28.13", "2013-10-28", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "VA", "Morgan Griffith", "G000568", "morgangriffith.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Obamacare Implementation Failures \u2013 Website and Rural America \nSince the launch of the health care reform law\u2019s exchanges on October 1, we have seen many reports of significant problems with the law\u2019s website and, even worse, health insurance plans that are more expensive and/or have significantly higher deductibles.\u00a0 Furthermore, an October 24 piece in Forbes* stated that more Americans (over 500,000 individuals) in 3 States have had their insurance policies cancelled than have \u201cfiled\u201d applications (476,000 applications) in all 50 States.\nThis is all very troubling, and has led to increasingly frequent calls for delays of or changes to the law\u2013 even among people like Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).\nAmericans are seeking answers as to who in the federal government was aware of technical issues, when these issues came to light, who made the decision to delay items like the law\u2019s Spanish language platform, etc.\u00a0 I hope that Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will have the answers to these important questions and others during the times that she testifies before Congress.\nDidn\u2019t Know or Didn\u2019t Disclose?\nOn Thursday, October 24, the Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing seeking to find out what has been happening with Obamacare\u2019s implementation.\u00a0 Several of the top contractors working on the health care law\u2019s website testified at this hearing. \nThe contractors told us that HHS was responsible for comprehensive, \u201cend-to-end\u201d testing of the system before it went live.\u00a0 Witnesses said that the federal government didn\u2019t conduct that final testing until just two weeks before the October 1 launch.\u00a0 According to CNN,** Andrew Slavitt of Optum/QSSI testified that \u201cThe system didn\u2019t receive adequate end-to-end testing.\u201d\u00a0 Cheryl Campbell of CGI Federal told us of a last minute change by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that prevented people from checking out Obamacare before having made a final decision as to what plan is right for their family.\u00a0 Although Ms. Campbell said she was never given a reason for this last minute change, it appeared to me to be a political decision so that the American people wouldn\u2019t get sticker shock when they saw how much Obamacare will actually cost them.\u00a0 \nIs it really that so many of these issues weren\u2019t known, or is it instead that they weren\u2019t disclosed?\u00a0 I fear it is the latter, but am hopeful that the Administration will provide some clarity on this and the many other questions that remain unanswered.\nNew York Times: \u201cHealth Care Law Fails to Lower Prices for Rural Areas\u201d\nA recent story in the New York Times*** highlights a major concern I share with many others from rural areas \u2013 that \u201c\u2026evidence is emerging that one of the program\u2019s loftiest goals \u2014 to encourage competition among insurers in an effort to keep costs low \u2014 is falling short for many rural Americans.\u201d\nIn this story, Wyoming\u2019s insurance commissioner Tom Hirsig said, \u201cI think the problem was that the Affordable Care Act was designed for where the majority of the people live, in the big cities where there\u2019s a lot of competition among health care providers.\u201d\nOur neighbor West Virginia is mentioned in this story as one of those States suffering from lack of competition. \"It is also difficult to attract new insurers to areas where the population has health problems,\" the authors wrote.\u00a0 \"Only one carrier, Highmark Blue Cross, is offering coverage in West Virginia, which has high rates of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes.\"\nHere in Southwest Virginia, many localities will have severely limited competition.\u00a0 Nine localities will have no competition in at least one of the two categories, with only one insurance company in either the Individual and/or SHOP (small business) exchanges.\u00a0 Those localities are Bland, Bristol, Buchanan, Carroll, Grayson, Lee, Scott, Tazewell, and Wythe. \nNo Republicans voted for Obamacare.\u00a0 At the time, then-Ninth District Representative Rick Boucher voted no, saying of Obamacare \u201c\u2026 Because of massive funding reductions for Medicare, it would adversely affect the quality of care received by Southwest Virginia senior citizens. It would result in health insurance premium increases for those who have insurance. It contains unacceptable special benefits for some states at the expense of the others. It does not correct the unwarranted disparities in Medicare reimbursements that penalize rural areas. \u2026\u201d\nWhile he and I disagreed on many issues, on this one, we agreed.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shame more rural Democrats didn\u2019t have the same vision.\nAs always, if you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671.\u00a0 To reach my office by email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.\u00a0 \n###\n* http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/24/more-americans-have-had-their-insurance-canceled-under-obamacare-than-have-filed-an-exchange-account/  \n ** http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/24/politics/congress-obamacare-website/ \n*** http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/business/health-law-fails-to-keep-prices-low-in-rural-areas.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print\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": ["http://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=356875"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8686026558279991, "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"}