[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 AFFORDABLE CARE ACT WEB SITE PROBLEMS

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, earlier this fall the President said the 
Affordable Care Act is more than just a Web site and that the problems 
with the Web site will soon be fixed. While I don't disagree with 
either of those two statements, I don't understand the timeline 
involved because yesterday in the Oversight and Investigation 
Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the deputy chief 
information officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 
told us that the Web site was launched, but it wasn't finished upon 
launch.
  I have to ask: Why in the world would they proceed with this if they 
knew it wasn't finished? When asked to give a percentage completion, it 
was confusing. His answer was either 40 or 60 percent; no one really 
knows, and here is the kicker. When you get to January and providers, 
doctors, and hospitals are seeing patients who think they have coverage 
under the Affordable Care Act, part of the problem with the unfinished 
Web site is there may be difficulty in delivering provider payments. 
That is an intolerable situation that must be resolved and must be 
resolved quickly. It could start with the administration being honest 
with the committee about where they are in the development of the Web 
site.

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