Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried to placate members of Congress, promising progress for Healthcare.gov.
"I'm responsible for this debacle," Sebelius told members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. "The application at this point does not work end to end very well."
Explaining the agency's process building the federal insurance marketplace, and decisions as late as September to "pare back" certain features that could slow the site down, Sebelius said that the fix-it team led by Jeff Zients is focusing on data exchange with insurers.
"The system isn't functioning, so we're not getting that reliable data," Sebelius said, confirming reports of insurers getting errant enrolment data. And the federal marketplace isn't yet integrated with state insurance exchanges and Medicaid programs, so HHS won't be able to provide enrollment data until November.
"We'll see the numbers at the end of the month and share them with the public," Sebelius said.
Sebelius, one of Obama's longest-serving cabinet members, received a roughly equal amount of encouragement and scrutiny from lawmakers.
Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts asked Sebelius about what many considered to be a design flaw in Healthcare.gov, the requirement (since removed) to create an account before being able to browse for plans. Specifically, Pitts wanted to know who at HHS or CMS made the decision -- and Sebelius said it wasn't her decision, but cited CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, who testified before the House Ways and Means Committee the day before.
"I wasn't aware of that particular decision that was made by the CMS team...Administrator Tavenner made that decision," Sebelius said. "We were anxious to get the website up and running, and pared back several features."
Michigan Republican Mike Rogers wanted to know if "an end to end security test" has been done on Healthcare.gov.
Sebelius said she wasn't sure. "I will find out exactly what testing they're doing." But she did agree that two weeks for testing the site wasn't adequate. "Clearly not," she told Rogers.
Other lawmakers pressed Sebelius to submit more information, and vowed to bring her back to the committee to explain the progress, or potential lack thereof, in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Texas Republican Ralph Hall, Congress' oldest member at age 90, told Sebelius "I'm going to try and be here in 2014 to make sure your testimony is correct."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the chief executive officer of eHealthInsurance, an online insurance exchange hopping to act as a broker for the federal marketplace, said he has a message for the Obama Administration: "Let us fix federal exchange problems at no cost to the taxpayer."
In a letter to President Obama, CEO Gary Lauer said he asking for the administration to "allow eHealth to take over enrollment" for the federal marketplace.
"We are ready to help you get this program back on track promptly, with the cooperation of the federal exchange, if you allow us to take over the shopping and enrollment process in all 36 federal exchange states -- without cost to the taxpayer. While your staff is working hard to repair Healthcare.gov, with your support, we can be the stopgap that is needed," Lauer wrote.