Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a joint report on Thursday that found inadequate oversight of the development of healthcare.gov led to millions of wasted taxpayer dollars.
The report detailed the alleged failure in oversight by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and how political pressure from the White House to go live in October resulted in the launch of an unsecure website.
“(Thursday’s) report shows how the actions of politically-motivated administration officials botched the rollout of healthcare.gov and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars,” Hatch said. “The findings of this report show the inexcusable nature of the administration’s disastrous failures. Unfortunately, it should come as no surprise that this administration once again chose to put political expediency ahead of security and performance concerns.”
The report concluded that less than a quarter of the website’s code was tested before the launch and that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had no coordinated project management.
“As we have seen in delay after delay, the administration continues to simply ignore the fundamental flaws of the law instead of honestly acknowledging to American families that the law does not work,” Hatch said. “In the end, the problem with Obamacare is not just the failed rollout of healthcare.gov, but the failed policies of the law that restrict patient choice and expand the powers of a bloated federal government.”