Monday, November 4, 2013

White House was warned 3 years ago about problems with the Obamacare rollout

The White House was warned about problems with the implementation and rollout of Obamacare three years prior to the launching of the Healthcare.Gov website, the Daily Mail reported on Monday, via CBS News.

In 2010, David Cutler, a health adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, wrote a [four-page] memo to former White House economic adviser Larry Summers and former White House budget director Peter Orszag, warning them that the people involved in the healthcare rollout were lacking both the business experience and necessary skills to implement the new healthcare rollout. But the White House brushed aside these and other warnings.

The Washington Post reported that Mr. Summers, Mr. Orszag, and their staffs, agreed with Cutler's assessment. Subsequently, the Post reported, an ensuing battle inside the White House broke out: Summers, Orszag and members of the White House economic team urged the president to appoint an outside health reform “czar” with expertise in business, insurance and technology. However, the president’s top health aides, who steered the bill through congress, argued that they could handle the task.

Ultimately, the economic team never had a chance, the Post reported, because President Obama was insistent on having his health policy team be in charge of the rollout.