From left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo\/Charles Dharapak)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) On the defensive, the Obama administration acknowledged Wednesday its problem-plagued health insurance website didn't get enough testing before going live. It said technicians were deep into the job of fixing major computer snags but provided no timetable. <\/p>\n
Democratic unhappiness with the situation began growing louder including one call for President Barack Obama to \"man up\" and fire someone as the president's allies began to fret about the political fallout. Democrats had hoped to run for re-election touting the benefits of the health care law for millions of uninsured Americans, but the computer problems are keeping many people from signing up. <\/p>\n
And Republican sniping continued unabated, with House Speaker John Boehner declaring, \"We've got the whole threat of Obamacare continuing to hang over our economy like a wet blanket.\" <\/p>\n
Obama himself, though strongly defending the health care overhaul, has been increasingly willing to acknowledge extensive problems with the sign-up through online markets. Amid all that, the Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday provided its most specific accounting yet of the troubles with HealthCare.gov an issue that is also about to get a lengthy, even-less-forgiving airing on Capitol Hill. <\/p>\n
The first of several hearings is set for Thursday in the Republican-led House, with lawmakers ready to pounce on the contractors who built the balky online enrollment system. <\/p>\n
Acknowledging what's been obvious to many outside experts, the administration said Wednesday that the system didn't get enough testing, especially at a high user volume. It blamed a compressed time frame for meeting the Oct. 1 deadline to open the insurance markets. Basic \"alpha and user testing\" are now completed, but that's supposed to happen before a launch, not after. <\/p>\n
The Health and Human Services explanation identified some bugs that have gotten little outside attention. <\/p>\n
For example, technical problems have surfaced that are making it hard for people to complete the application and plan-shopping functions. That's a big concern because those stages are further along in the signup process than the initial registration, where many consumers have been getting tripped up. The problems are being analyzed and fixes are planned, the department said. <\/p>\n
The explanation, posted online in a department blog and accompanying graphic, identified other broad areas of problems and outlined fixes underway but in most cases incomplete: <\/p>\n
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Health care site snags? Administration spells out<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law Continue reading