Designers Of HealthCare.Gov Defend Their Work

05:58

October 24, 2013

Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal, left, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with contractors that built the federal government's health care websites. (Evan Vucci/AP)

In prepared remarks, the contractors who designed and implemented the glitch-prone federal health insurance exchanges are telling members of Congress that HealthCare.gov is now working well.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are demanding to know why contractors in earlier testimony assured them that all systems were 'go' for the Oct. 1 launch of the website, when it's now known that basic testing of the consumer experience wasn't completed before the launch.

Democrats on the panel are saying the technical problems must and will be fixed. It's the first congressional hearing on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Meantime, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it would give Americans an extra six weeks to sign up for health insurance through the new online marketplaces.

This means that people will have until March 31, 2014, to sign up for a plan. Officials insist this extension is not due to the many technical issues affecting the online registration process, rather a clarification regarding some confusion about the 2010 law.

To hear the interview with NPR's Julie Rovner, click the audio at the top of the page.

Guests

Shannon Pettypiece, healthcare reporter for Bloomberg. She tweets @spettypi.
Julie Rovner, health policy correspondent for NPR. She tweets @jrovner.

This segment aired on October 24, 2013.

policy