Lost in the midst of CNN's debt ceiling coverage was its own list of
ObamaCare's shortcomings. Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin
authored a report on "ObamaCare woes" that aired only three times on
Monday and Tuesday.
Griffin reported trouble with ObamaCare's website, cited a March GAO
report on missed deadlines for the system's construction, and quoted a
consultant who said that insurance executives had waved red flags that
the "whole system is not ready for primetime."
[Video below.
Audio here.]
Yet even though ObamaCare's exchanges are the third week of their
rollout, and the law the centerpiece of the shutdown and debt ceiling
standoff, CNN largely ignored the report on Tuesday. Griffin's piece
only aired on Monday night's Anderson Cooper 360, Tuesday's 4 a.m. ET hour of Early Start, and the 1 p.m. ET hour of Tuesday's Newsroom.
In addition, CNN ignored an embarrassing incident
for ObamaCare from last Thursday. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
headlined an ObamaCare "education and enrollment" event that only 100
people showed up to. Attendees also had problems logging onto
Healthcare.gov despite the presence of certified counselors to help them
look at insurance options. CNN has still not reported the story.
Below is a transcript of Griffin's report, which aired on
Early Start on October 15 at 4:05 a.m. EDT:
(Video Clip)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN investigative correspondent (voice-over): Since day
one, CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, has tried, day
after day, night after night, even in the wee hours of the morning, to
sign up for Obamacare. It was not until day 14 she could finally log in.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN senior medical correspondent: You know, even with
your own computer, you have to be incredibly diligent. I mean, I sat
there and tried to log in three times and failed and had to create three
new accounts in order to get success. It took a lot. Not everyone is
going to want to game the game the way that I did. It took a huge amount
to get in today. This was on day 14.
GRIFFIN: What's troubling here is that the failed rollout wasn't a surprise to anyone involved with it.
ROBERT LASZEWSKI, Health Policy and Strategy Associates: Insurance
executives have been warning the administration bluntly that this whole
system is not ready for primetime.
GRIFFIN: Bob Laszewski heads a consulting firm trying to help guide
physician groups, HMOs, and major health insurance companies through the
industry changes.
LASZEWSKI: The administration didn't seem to understand the seriousness
of it. They were blase about it. They continued to assure the industry
that there weren't going to be any problems.
GRIFFIN: Back in June, two more alarms. The government's own accounting
office found the rollout was having technical problems, critical
deadlines not met. One report concluded that despite the $394 million
spent, "nevertheless, much remains to be accomplished within a
relatively short amount of time."
In fact, even before the rollout, the Obama administration, behind the
scenes, was warning there would be glitches. No big deal. A theme even
the President himself repeated once the rollout got off to a troubled
start.
OBAMA: Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new
mobile operating system. And within days, they found a glitch, so they
fixed it. I don't remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling
iPhones or iPads, or threatening to shut down the company if they
didn't.
GRIFFIN: The main problem with the system, according to the
administration, is it is just overloaded, suffering from its own
popularity, too many people in need of health care rushing to sign on
all at once, even though they have until March 31st to sign up. That
sounds good, but is it what's really going on? Short answer: It's
impossible to tell because the administration won't tell us how many
people have signed up, and have changed their story in the process. At
first, the administration said it didn't know.
JAY CARNEY, White House press secretary: 48 hours, we have – no, we don't have that data.
GRIFFIN: Then we were told to ask someone else.
CARNEY: You should ask HHS. I don't have a number.
GRIFFIN: A few days later, wait a month.
CARNEY: I want to clear this up. We will release data on regular
monthly intervals, just like was done in Massachusetts and just like
what was done and is done when it comes to Medicare Part D.
GRIFFIN: So while we can't get the national numbers, we got a hint by
calling individual states. As of this Monday, in the 14 states and the
District of Columbia that have their own state-run health care run
exchanges, we were able to get the actual numbers of people who have
signed up and paid for Obamacare. That number? 20,994. There are another
96,980 signed up who have not yet paid.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(End Video Clip)
