U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 30, 2013. Sebelius apologized to consumers but said improvements have been made to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) website and that it will be fixed within a month. UPI/Yuri Gripas. |
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A top Obama administration official said Tuesday the healthcare.gov website is "vastly improved" as a Saturday deadline for improvement approaches.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on a conference call with state and local officials, "I can tell you two things: That we are definitely on track to have a significantly different user experience by the end of this month -- that was our commitment -- than people experienced on Oct. 1."
She added, "This isn't a magic turn on the on switch. The experience is vastly improved each and every day. We are seeing more and more enrollments each and every day."
Sebelius said, "We've added hardware, we've added software. We're continuing to work on the parts of the website that were too confusing to people. And well beyond Dec. 1, those improvements will continue."
The administration wants "to continue to update this, but I would urge you and your folks on the ground to not hesitate to recommend that people go to healthcare.gov and get signed up because that experience is currently working much better and it will continue to work much better."
Sebelius also defended President Obama, who promised people could keep their insurance if they liked it, only to see many policies canceled because they could not meet the new tougher standards.
"I just think it's important to put this issue into perspective," she said. "The people in the individual market -- those Americans who buy insurance on their own -- have been really in a market that has had very few consumer protections, traditionally. And most individuals who are in the individual market are there for a relatively short period of time -- less than a year.
"Policies are turned over on a very regular basis by insurance companies and ... there were certainly some limited number of individuals who were in extremely good health conditions and had policies that they felt were adequate for themselves and their families.
"But the vast majority of people in the individual market were there because they did not have employer-based insurance coverage and also were often locked out of full coverage because of a health condition or because they could not afford a policy that provided full benefits," a situation that would change under the law.
