Sen. Orrin Hatch releases a blistering new report showing that the White House delayed the assembly of HealthCare.gov for political reasons and then forced its Oct. 1 launch when it was barely functional.
Reports The Hill:
Meddling by the White House was partially responsible for the botched launch of HealthCare.gov last fall, Senate Republicans charged in a new report released Thursday.
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) detailed the website’s troubled construction in a blistering post-mortem nine months after the debut of the federal ObamaCare exchange.
The senators said involvement by the White House delayed the assembly of HealthCare.gov and forced its launch when the system was barely functional.
Federal health officials were also “dissuaded … from voicing their concerns” about technical glitches because the Oct. 1 rollout of the site was a priority for the White House.
“Political concerns should not trump operational decisions,” the GOP report says.
“No one wanted to be the messenger that told the White House that its signature piece of legislation was going to crash at takeoff. The administration prioritized political success over protecting taxpayer dollars.”
