GOP: Did Obamacare Site Hide Prices?

[mystery-ak]

http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/10/22/gop-did-obamacare-site-hide-prices

AP
GOP: Did Obamacare Site Hide Prices?
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By: Tom Howell, Jr. (Washington Times)

The House’s top investigators want to know if the Obama administration made a political decision to get rid of an online tool that would have allowed uninsured Americans to comparison-shop among private health plans on the federal Obamacare website before registering for an account.

Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote to the administration’s top information technology officers on Tuesday to demand answers about the purported maneuver.

They cited committee briefings with CGI Federal — the lead contractor on HealthCare.gov, which channels Obamacare traffic from three dozen states — as the catalyst for their suspicions.

“Although CGI officials were not able to identify who within the administration made the decision to disable the anonymous shopping feature, evidence is mounting that political considerations motivated the decision,” Mr. Issa and four other committee Republicans said in their letter to U.S. Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park.

CGI inked a five-year contract worth nearly $94 million with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the chief agency in charge of implementing the health care law, the letter said.

Early on, CGI officials aired concerns about the readiness of the online portals in a briefing with the oversight committee.

They also said that CMS staff would regularly say things like, “This is what the White House wants,” raising the specter of politically-motivated decisions, according to the GOP lawmakers.

A Wall Street Journal article cited in the House letter said the administration wanted to make sure that users were aware of any subsidies they qualified for — before they got a look at the prices of various health policies.

Mr. Issa’s letter suggested the register-first model caused the site to jam up.

“Many IT experts have suggested that the decision to disable the anonymous shopping feature contributed to the failure of healthcare.gov on October 1, 2013, and in the weeks that have followed,” the lawmakers said in their letter.

A spokesperson for CMS could not immediately be reached for comment on the GOP members’ inquiry.

[Fishrrman]

[[ Did Obamacare Site Hide Prices? ]]

Of course they did.

The left ALWAYS tries to hide the true cost of its policies and programs.

As if the concept of "cost" mattered to them, which it doesn't.
They can always just raise taxes and borrow more, right?

[Rapunzel]

They are quoting 49-year-olds at 27 year-old prices and 62 year-olds at 52 year-old prices.  Rush thinks this is not due to a programming mistake and it a way to get these people to think their rates are substantially lower than they will be in reality, but capture them as enrollees who then will be unable to opt out when they receive their actual - probably double - rate.  Glenn Beck had the same observation on his show this morning as well.

[Cincinnatus]

Rush thinks this is not due to a programming mistake... Of course it isn't. Duh!

[collins]

Reading through the threads here has convinced me NOT to go to that site for a quote . . . I *was* curious but they want too much information and they're being deceptive intentionally or not, so I'll pass.