Hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - PPACA Implementation: Updates from CMS and GAO

Hearing

Mr. Chairman, today is the twelfth hearing this Committee has held on the Affordable
Care Act since enrollment began in October 2013.

These hearings, if you look at them, have had just one purpose: to undermine the
Affordable Care Act regardless of the facts. The hearings have misled the public and squandered taxpayer dollars. In fact, the Affordable Care Act is a historic success. It has made comprehensive health care reform a reality for the American people.

More than eight million people have now signed up for private health insurance plans
through the federal and state marketplaces, exceeding CBO's enrollment estimates by over one million people. An additional 6.7 million individuals have enrolled in Medicaid and the CHIP program as of May of this year. Three million young adults under age 26 have enrolled in their parents' health insurance plans.

The fact sheets released this morning by the Democratic staff reveal that in my district alone, 17,000 residents who were previously uninsured now have quality, affordable health coverage because of the Affordable Care Act. So I am giving some perspective, the law has been a success, it is accomplishing what Congress and President Obama intended. Instead, we have another hearing of this committee, how the Affordable Care Act has problems and presumably led to the conclusion that it should be repealed.

In a lawsuit, there is a word called "stipulate'. We can stipulate what the GAO has
reported, and they have reported some things for which we ought to be concerned. But despite its success, I recognize that the initial rollout of Healthcare.gov had serious flaws. I'm glad we will hear today from Government Accountability Office on their investigation of Healthcare.gov contracting. We should always try to learn from mistakes, as dwelling on them does nothing.

I investigated many flawed contracts when I chaired the Oversight Committee. In fact, I release a report that identified nearly 200 contracts worth over $1 trillion that involved significant waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement.

The FBI's first contract to create a virtual case file system had to be cancelled after spending over $100 million. The Department of Homeland Security's contract to build a hightech border fence, which we are still having problems with, had to be cancelled after wasting $1 billion. And the Coast Guard's multi-billion Deepwater contract built boats that would not float.

My point is not to excuse the Healthcare.gov problems, but to put them in context. With the exception of Tom Davis, congressional Republicans showed little interest in these enormous wastes of taxpayer dollars when George W. Bush was President.

I think we care about waste, fraud, and abuse no matter who is President. I am proud that Healthcare.gov was fixed quickly and helped millions of Americans enroll for insurance coverage. But I want to learn what went wrong so CMS can do a better job the next time, not how the Republicans handle this by telling us that there are problems. Their conclusion is to then repeal it so they can replace it, but they have never given us a replacement.

People are finally getting insurance who could never get it in the past because they had pre-existing medical conditions. People are finding that their insurance cannot be cancelled on them after they paid, just because they got sick. Women are finding that they are not discriminated against and people who could not afford it can now get insurance because we give them tax breaks in order to pay for it. I am also eager to learn what the agency is doing so enrollment in 2015 goes more smoothly.

We now have unequivocal proof that health care reform is a success. We now need to make the 2015 enrollment period as smooth as possible so we can build on this success. Let's go towards trying to make things better and not dwell on things that are wrong, especially if you learn the lessons and fix the problems.

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