Senator Tim Scott: Why Did it Take a Hearing to Fix Health Care Website Privacy Issues?

Press Release

Following his questioning of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) administrator Marilyn Tavenner in a Senate Health Committee hearing yesterday, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has received word that CMS has finally removed the personal information of a South Carolinian whose personal information was compromised on Healthcare.Gov.

"It is unfortunate that the Obama administration apparently required a Senate hearing with an Obamacare administrator in order to resolve such a dramatic breach of privacy," Scott said. "While I am certainly pleased we were able to force a solution to this matter, it took CMS far too long to even determine if they could find a solution to this problem, much less put it in place."

Scott continued, "HealthCare.Gov has become synonymous with failure, and this administration's complete lack of accountability only continues to reinforce what we already knew -- Obamacare is a disaster. Premiums are skyrocketing, millions of Americans are losing their current plans, contrary to the President's promise, and now we have seen concrete evidence of the security issues in play on the website."

Senator Scott was contacted by constituent Tom Dougall of Elgin, SC, who had created an account on Healthcare.gov early last month in order to research insurance plans. Last week, Mr. Dougall heard from another individual, Justin Hadley of North Carolina, who had done the same thing and found Mr. Dougall's private personal information linked to his Healthcare.gov account. Mr. Dougall called the Department of Health and Human Services to have his account deleted and, after multiple attempts, was referred to another federal agency to have the issue resolved.

Scott was also assured by Tavenner in the hearing yesterday that CMS had reached out to Mr. Dougall, which was not true. Mr. Dougall did not first hear from the agency until after the hearing ended yesterday afternoon, and was contacted last night and informed that his information had been removed from the website, five days after his ordeal began. Mr. Dougall spoke with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News last night.

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