Should Kids Perform Cleaning

In a Sept. 25 email to staff developing the website, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project manager Henry Chao cited this fear the WH has about hc.gov being unavailable and urged the team to think about a better way to convey to the public when the site is not available. I am picturing in my mind all the major print and online publications taking screenshots of what is below and just ramping up the hyperbole about hc.gov not [being] functional, Chao wrote. Republicans say it proves the White House knew the site was likely to fail, even as President Obama told Americans signing up for health insurance would be as simple as buying a plane ticket. Top administration officials have repeatedly said that they were caught entirely off guard by the breadth and depth of the sites technical problems on Oct. 1. While advance warning might have never reached the Oval Office, Chao seems to indicate that at least some White House staff believed the problems were sufficiently concerning to necessitate a push for ways to minimize bad press. In response to the emails, which were released by the House Oversight Committee, CMS said that even before the launch of the website we expected that there would be issues but that officials did not anticipate the degree of the problems in the system. It is important to remember that this email is part of a number of ongoing, operationally focused discussions to conduct final checks of processes, procedures and work to ensure Healthcare.gov would be launched on October 1st, a CMS official said in a statement. At the very least, the emails show Chao and other officials were quite prescient: The webpage has become exactly what they feared, a symbol of the troubled rollout. When Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius first testified on Capitol Hill this month, the System Is Down warning appeared in split-screen with her testimony on many cable channels and in the hearing room. During her visit to a health care Navigators site in Florida Tuesday, it again came back to haunt her. With a scrum of cameras and reporters surrounding her, Sebelius approached a navigator and looked at her computer Web browser, which was directed to HealthCare.gov. The screen says Im sorry but the system is temporarily down, one reporter pointed out, according to video of the encounter captured by Miami TV station WFOR.

White House emails chronicle serious health care site concerns before launch

Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after he was congressionally censured for failing to pay income taxes and filing misleading financial statements, among other misdeeds. But that didn't stop him from hammering Mitt Romney for his lack of transparency on tax returns. "Before he judges other people about paying federal income taxes, Governor Romney should come clean about the tax returns he's hiding from voters," Rangel said. Paul Ryan The failed vice presidential candidate has been an outspoken opponent of earmark spending, but that didn't stop Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) from arranging a $735,000 earmark to construct a transit center in his hometown of Janesville, Wis. Likewise, after slamming President Barack Obama's stimulus package, Ryan sought stimulus funds for several projects in his district. Michele Bachmann Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was the original sponsor of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but her war against "socialized medicine" hasn't stopped husband Marcus from applying for public funds for his "pray away the gay" counseling practice.

I am picturing in my mind all the major print and online publications taking screenshots of what is below and just ramping up the hyperbole about hc.gov not functional. And in one particularly insightful exchange, Chao attached an image of the HealthCare.gov site with a The System is down at the Moment error message. The emails were sent to a few dozen individuals on the content management system (CMS) staff and a number of independent contractors. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa released the email exchanges. In another message, Chao discussed how CMS Administrator Marilyn Travenner and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park expressed concern over the sites viability. When Todd Park and Marilyn was here yesterday one of the things Todd conveyed was this fear the WH has about hc.gov being unavailable, Chao wrote. Todd does have a good point and I think we should have a more comprehensive answer as to how we will ensure high availability. However, White House spokesman Eric Schultz told Politico that the Chaos concerns were more focused on whether the site could handle a large number of visitors rather than overall concerns about the sites general viability. On the eve of launching a website this complex, it is only natural to raise questions and prepare for all scenarios, including high volume, Schultz told Politico. As we have said many times now, nobody anticipated the size and scope of the problems we experienced once the site launched, but our concern at the time was increasing the sites capacity to handle many users a concern that proved prescient since demand to this day remains very high for quality affordable health care. I just need to feel more confident they are not going to crash the plane at take-off, Chao wrote in a July 16 email . Media NEW YORK (AP) Sarah Palin on Wednesday cancelled a scheduled interview with NBC's Matt Lauer following MSNBC host Martin Bashir's suggestion that she deserved a graphic punishment for comments made about slavery. Associated Press LONDON (AP) He's been turned down by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his quest to return home and his family says it's because he has been deemed too fat to travel. Associated Press Lindsey Vonn partially tore one of the reconstructed ligaments in her surgically repaired right knee in a training crash that at the very least puts her preparation for the Sochi Olympics on hold.

House panel says administration missed website warnings

Obama acknowledged that the widespread problems with his health care law's rollout are unacceptable, as the administration scrambles to fix the cascade of computer issues. (Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP) House committee spotlights report warning of health care website problems Washington woman says her health care costs soared after sign-up Obama's approval ratings have fallen during the health care rollout SHARE 60 CONNECT 19 TWEET 10 COMMENTEMAILMORE WASHINGTON The chief information officer with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Tuesday that he did not see a consultant's report in March that highlighted numerous problems facing the launch of the federal health care exchange. Henry Chao told a House committee he had not seen the McKinsey & Co. report and did not choose the Oct. 1 start day for the HealthCare.gov website, which has been plagued by problems in the six weeks since its launch. Chao also told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the tech team fixing HealthCare.gov still has to build 30% to 40% of systems needed to support the website. At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said President Obama and top aides were briefed in recent months about the kinds of implementation issues and problems raised in the McKinsey report, but were told the website would be ready for operation by October. Obama, speaking to a group of corporate executives, said that "my website's not working the way it's supposed to," and officials are working on improvements. "We are getting it fixed," Obama said at the annual meeting of The Wall Street Journal/CEO Council. "But it would have been better to do it on the front end, rather than the back end." Republicans cited the McKinsey study throughout the House hearing, stressing that at least some officials were warned about website problems. "We're concerned at multiple levels," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. "It is absolutely clear that the start-up of the website was not going to work well if at all by Oct. 1." White House and CMS officials said red flags were raised throughout development of the website, but contractors said it would be ready and no one expected the scope of the problems that ensued. "The president, as we said repeatedly, got regular briefings and was told that there were problems that were being addressed," Carney said, and no one at the White House was warned that "the site would perform as poorly as it did." CMS spokeswoman Patti Unruh said of the McKinsey study: "The review was completed six months before the beginning of open enrollment, was in line with industry best practices and was followed by concrete action to address potential risks as was intended." Unruh said CMS "has continually evaluated progress and has taken steps to prioritize and address concerns and mitigate risks." CMS contracted with McKinsey in 2010 to review the progress made in the development of the health care exchange, which is where residents of 34 states can go to buy health insurance required by the Affordable Care Act.