Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso on Wednesday lambasted the rollout of insurance markets tied to Obamacare, saying news outlets, customer reviews and tech experts agree the plan’s first days have been “a complete disaster.”
The lawmaker, an orthopedic doctor himself, has taken aim at the Affordable Care Act numerous times before in remarks on the Senate floor.
SEE RELATED:
This time, he came armed with editorials suggesting the Obama administration did itself no favors by suggesting heavy web traffic was the source of computer glitches on HealthCare.gov and state-run websites, where consumers without employer-based coverage should be able to shop for private health insurance, often with the help of income-based government subsidies.
“It was a complete fiasco. … Even ‘Saturday Night Live’ ridiculed the excuse,” Mr. Barrasso said.
The White House and federal officials have noted it is early in the six-month enrollment period and that the website is getting better by the day, as operators improve capacity.
The senator said thousands of other websites can handle the same amount of traffic the federal health care site has experienced. He also wondered how many people were actually able to enroll through President Obama’s signature law.
“We have no idea,” he said. “The administration doesn’t want to talk about it.”
