Should Sebelius step down for Obamacare woes? Your Say
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized at a congressional hearing Wednesday for the rocky rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Facebook comments and letters to the editor have been edited for clarity and grammar.
Sebelius needs to be held accountable but not by the very crowd that applauded the failure of HealthCare.gov. This is not about passing the buck because Sebelius owns the failure.
But all the facts need to be on the table, including the role GOP obstructionism played in this information technology debacle.
John Petz
Wanting something to fail, and participating to make it fail, are two different things. Stop blaming Republicans for everything. The Democrats own 100% the creation of the disaster that is unfolding.
Mark Jones
Sebelius did a terrible job implementing a law and creating a website that does not work. She deserves to be drilled by the House for wasting taxpayer dollars. This is not a Republican vs. Democratic issue.
Mike Jones
I was ashamed of how the GOP members acted in the congressional hearing Wednesday.
Many attacked in a hateful, abusive manner. Instead of pointing fingers like kindergarteners, they should have been asking how the health care law problems could be fixed, and why these low-level insurance policies that are being canceled were allowed to be sold in the first place. The plans don't even meet the minimal standards of good health care.
Betty Caron
So what if the website isn't perfect? The objective here is to give millions of Americans affordable health care coverage, previously denied to them by the insurance companies.
Obamacare is not about having a glitchless website. Computer problems can and will be fixed.
Angela Evans
The website is going to be a non-issue once more Americans find out that not only are they getting kicked off their current health care plans, but that a new one also is going to be much more expensive.
President Obama and the Democrats are not prepared for the trouble that is coming their way.
Michael Ross Loosier
Letters to the editor
After watching the questioning of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, I can only say one thing: It was a joke.
The Democrats on the House committee did nothing but support the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).The Republican committee members brought up valuable points, presented cases where people are losing their insurance, and/or are facing increased premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. Yet, the Democrats hold fast that this is a godsend for health care in this country.
Basically, this system is intended to fail and lead to a one-payer system: the U.S. government. That is, Medicare for all. The bottom line: The health care law should be scrapped, and Sebelius should be forced to resign in disgrace.
Randall W. Klotz; Germantown, Ohio.
The Obama administration severely underestimated the consequences of major glitches in its online system, HealthCare.gov, that have seriously hampered people enrolling in the health care exchanges.
The administration is saying that people have other means to enroll, not just online. But if the government wants young adults to sign up, which seems to be a priority, it had better get the online system in order, as that is the preferred method today's young adults use in communicating and getting things done.
I think the major problem with the online system is that it was rushed and opened prematurely, using an irrational political timetable rather than a practical technological timetable. The site was not thoroughly tested before it became operational and opened before all the bugs could be ironed out.
Kenneth L. Zimmerman; Huntington Beach, Calif.