have to guarantee the contractors responsible for this not working will be held into account? we have significant contracts with a number of key outside industries. see ti and to ssi are two of them. we have paid out a portion of the money that has been encumbered for the website built. on a not up and running sufficient level at this point and we have new management with one of our key contractors driving part of the fix. sure the funding delivers on the product promise. it is not there yet and that is the promised commitment. we are working to make sure as bills come in, they are clearly reviewed and that we have the opportunity to make sure the havect we need and committed to is delivered. >> mr. chairman, i will make a final statement. as someone who has fought and bled for this and sincerely thinks it will work in the long run, i want to hold them account and burn their fingers and make for not being responsible in producing a product all of us could be proud. thank you, mr. chairman. >> madam secretary, i want to mock -- to remind everyone again how we got here today. committeeers of this -- details we only received assurances things would go smoothly. we started hearing from people directly involved in implementation of the exchanges were deeply worried about the website's launch. in june, the government accountability office issued a report it should have served as a warning to you as a --hlighted information is implementation -- it was never addressed. by july, it was clear to me your department was being less than transparent about whether the exchanges would be ready by october 1. i introduced the exchange sunset at the 2013. my bill would have sunset the exchanges and the individual mandate for people unable to enroll starting october 1 as promised. august, we determined tasks remain to be completed in a short time. your main website contractor one behind onere falling their highest priority items. thatne included and -- services were intermittently not available. several days later, the white hub isnnounced the data ready for operation. in mid-september, ems ordered a contractor to make a significant change to the system to require people to submit personal information before revealing any plans or associated costs. days before the launch, testing showed a few hundred visitors crashed the site. the next day, a decision was made to move forward to watch it knowing there would be a high security risk during testing. i believe you were given advice, counsel, and warning, from experts inside your agency and out, that the health care exchanges were not going to be ready. i believe to protect the you put us in, jeopardy. millions of americans are scared and they do not know whether they will have coverage in a matter of weeks and do not know whether coverage will include. letters now getting from insurance companies they do not understand. more people are losing their insurance than are signing up on the web that. they are being directed to a website that does not work. about lifeften talk and death in the context it deserves. at this time, it is real and it may -- means the difference between life and death for many americans at a loss for what to do. we know fixing the website will never fix the uncertainty and ramifications that result from this law. i have to wonder, if you have failed tos that you heed the warnings and ignored the calls for members of congress and proceeded to open the exchanges october 1, immediately followed by a promotional tool to tell everyone, it is a great problem to have. kansans do not think these are great problem to have. hometown, stephen wrote, i am completely disgusted. i have spent the last two days trying to get my application through. this could not be a critical issue except the insurance coverage i currently have is going away because of the new federal requirements. you yourself know this law has serious problems. you delayed half the deadlines notemployers and unions are for millions of other americans .osing their health care their worry and fear are palpable. your main goal should have been to protect americans to assure their safety. in your zeal to implement this law, not warnings, not advice, not counsel would deter you from implementing the exchanges there you said america should hold you accountable. that is why today, i repeat my request for you to resign. >> thank you, senator. >> madame secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. the problems we are facing with the marketplace website are unacceptable, they need to be fixed immediately. i would like to put things in a historical perspective. the age-old plan is facing hurdles. problems the set show soul security. medicare is facing trouble. new problems in medicare bug trend it -- drug benefit. those are headlines from the early part of this decade. major programs that have come below in terms of the social safety net in this country and health care security. while this is an excusable, it is a challenge that has been faced time and time when any program has been unveiled. i find it amazing that those that seek to ascribe blame have spent every waking hour of the last four years working to dismantle, destroy, obstruct, and impede the success of the affordable care act. they are concerned not about its failure, but about its success. what i hope we will focus on is how to succeed. i want to get a sense when those of us on the committee worked to put this together, we were under the assumption that state- controlled by republican legislatures or governors would put a higher premium on the love of state rights than their dislike of the president or some ideological political opposition. which is why we are seeing far better success in states that have established their own marketplace. what is the consequence of having so many of the states not pursue their own marketplace and delegating it to the federal government? did you envision not having that many states? what has been the consequences of the burden of that? >> we really didn't know. we knew that 27 states had sued around the constitutionality of the bill. there was uncertainty what would happen when the court declared it unconstitutional how those states would react. some have chosen a partnership where we still run the bulk of the exchange. it has added to the uncertainty of how large the operation would be. we did have deadlines in january of 13 for states to officially declare if they would run their own marketplace or not. and by february, a partnership plan. the state using the hub is significantly higher than they might have predicted initially at the outset of the plan. we have robust product offerings, very competitive. one fourth of the insurers are brand-new. they have choices, they have competition. >> the state marketplaces seem to be having greater success than those being run federally? >> the web features are running more smoothly if you think about one set of products and one set of prices in one state. it is a less complicated -- but all of the states, as well as the federal markets are using the hub. they are coming into the federal market to certify security and income -- >> let me ask you one last question because we are hearing from a number of providers, including health centers. my state did not set up its own exchange. insurance companies have yet to provide them with networking contracts. in order to ensure network adequacy. if we are going to say state insurance regulators are responsible, many of these are actively hostile. how are people supposed to shop for a plan when the network is not yet in place? >> there is no plan that has a network that is readily available and made the scrutiny of the state insurance department. every plan in the market has a network. consumers can access that information as we shop for insurance coverage. >> we know president obama's promise that if you like the health plan you have, you will be able to keep your health plan. millions of americans are finding out that just isn't the case. henry ford said that customers could have his model t in any color they want so long as it was black. if you like your current plan, you can keep it as long as it is the model he chooses. i offered a proposal to give people the honest choice to keep their plans but everyone in the majority party voted against it. it still has the promise on their that if you like your health plan, you can keep it. 2600 wyomingites got word that they could not keep the insurance that they've got even if they like it. i am working with the bill under ron johnson that would allow americans to keep their health care if they like it. these notices are a up to the american public. it is hurting the economy and making health insurance less affordable. the one-size-fits-all approach is hurting our country and we need more people in congress that understand this. my hope is that even my democrat colleagues are seeing the light. my question to you is this. what is the administration doing to help the people as a result of the broken promise? they can't qualify for subsidy and are facing thousands of dollars in insurance costs. wyoming's costs are higher than any other state in the nation and we only have two providers. there has not been an increase in the number of providers. your answer? >> i believe the president's promise was in the law from the day that it was written. a grandfather clause that we wrote as a prophecy -- policy. the plans in effect that did not change to the detriment of the consumer, even though the insurance company could raise premiums, they could not eliminate benefits or take away items that the consumer alike. those are in effect -- consumer liked. those are in effect and will be enjoyed into the future. they don't have to come into compliance with anything in the law. but if the plans turnover and this is -- you heard senator nelson and we served together as insurance commissioners. talking about the planned turnover. if plans changed over and over again since 2010, insurers have been on notice since 2010 that they needed to come into compliance. the employer market and every other part of health insurance. >> i am not worried about the insurers, i am worried about the people. they are worried -- losing the doctor that they like to go to. there are changes that have been made that are causing some problems. you also mentioned a number of people are signing up. i noticed in washington state, 35,000 people signed up for obama care. 87% will receive their coverage through medicaid. tony 6000 people enrolled in kentucky and 80% of those will be in medicaid. 96% are going into medicaid. it has costs to the federal government, particularly with some of the increases that were put into this law. are we going to be able to afford this increase? and the other customers paying the tab to provide the revenue to do this? >> when the affordable care act was passed, it was anticipated 100% of the states would expand medicaid. it was altered by the supreme court decision that made medicaid expansion a voluntary expansion for states. we have 30 governors republican and democratic who have declared their interest in moving ahead with medicaid expansion. that expansion of 100% of the states was paid for in the affordable care act. it is heart of the law that was passed in 2010. unlike medicare part d that was not paid for when congress passed it. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i am convinced that the fundamentals are sound. we have seen the implementation in a very orderly way, protecting millions of americans. the practices that existed before the affordable care act are being dealt with. as my colleagues talk about the actions of private insurance companies today, go back and see how many people lost coverage. insurance companies pulling out of markets, reducing benefits and increasing premiums. i also point out in regard to the exchanges, the number of carriers offering plans and the pricing of those plans came in much stronger than we anticipated. it is sound. our disappointment as to how the website shopping and enrollment was not done more effectively starting october 1. i guess my question, madam secretary. as a result of the delay in individuals being able to shop and enroll, there are people that will be disadvantaged. people who have not gotten as far as they want. consumer fatigue. people will have a more challenging time. we also have a large number of people that have lost coverage, which was understandable because these are policies that were changed since 2010. these are individuals that changed their insurance policies frequently. they want to enroll by mid- december so that they can get coverage effective january 1. what steps are you taking to deal with -- to make it easier and more convenient for people to be able to shop and enroll? what steps have you taken for those suffering the delay to get the website working. >> step one through six is getting be site fixed as rapidly as possible. we are deploying additional assets to the call center. operations have additional individuals now. we have 12,000 trained call center representatives that not only have in english and spanish version of scripts, but translators that can answer questions and up to 150 languages. they can take them from start to finish or help create an application. we are trying to train throughout the ground and they are actively working in their neighborhoods. the state has a contract through community groups and well-known medical advocacy groups. walking people through a paper application or on the phone or in person. >> i would urge you to make that available to those of us more comfortable using applications. >> we had alternate strategies to enhance those alternate strategies. >> the state exchanges operated by the states are having different results. some are doing well and some are not. i would urge you to monitor the progress made on the state exchanges because we want to make sure those that have been disadvantaged because of the inadequacy of the performance of online shopping and enrollment that it might go beyond federal exchanges and those are also protected as you look at ways to compensate for the slower rollout. >> we have regular updates with the state directors. it won is occurring at 4:00 this afternoon. we are not only trying to pay attention to the federal marketplace, but keeping him very close touch with lessons learned. the applying them in other areas to figure out what is working and what is not. using the full six months to really reach out and enroll people that are eager for affordable health care. >> madame secretary, in september of 2009, the polls said that 88% of americans were satisfied with their current health insurance plan. which is why the president made a promise that he made. as you can see, yesterday afternoon, the white house website says if you like your plan, you can keep it. you don't have to change a thing due to the health care law. we know that lying to congress is a crime. lying to the american people is not. i would like to ask you a simple true or false question. is that statement true? or is it false? >> i think the statement -- the vast majority of americans that are insured are in the employer market or public plans are veterans plans. those plans have stayed in place and have continued to offer benefits. the 11 million people in the individual market will keep plans that now will have stronger coverage. others will have to choose if they have a brand-new plan. >> let the record note that you have refused to answer my question if it is true or false. in june of 2010, is it true that the department that you headed estimated between 40 and 67% of those buying insurance would lose grandfather status? is it true that on the same day that your department estimated that 66% of the people in small employer plans and 45% would lose their grandfather status by 2013? >> senator, that is an inaccurate use of those statistics. could i answer the question? i can tell you what the statistics mean. i would like to tell you what the statistics mean. >> she did answer, she said it was inaccurate. >> that is not what the statistics say. it was a look back at how much turn there was in the marketplace, not a projection of what was going to happen. >> isn't it true, according to the congressional budget office that 156 million americans get their health insurance from their employer sponsored health care plan in 2013? the office estimated that because of the failure to keep the promise on the white house website, 78 million americans will not be able to keep their lands as promised. >> i don't have any idea what that statistic is. there are about 170 million that have employer-based coverage but i don't know the statistic. >> i would commend the estimate to you which is what congress depends upon. 78 million people will not be able to keep their employer- provided coverage. this is a false statement that this administration has consistently doubled down on and repeated time and time again. the only thing i can conclude is that it is impossible to do something in this administration that gets you fired. you can lie to the american people, consistently misrepresent the facts. it is impossible to get fired. so i will ask you about the navigators. the president is in dallas texas today touting the navigator program, which, as you know, are people who are hired to help people navigate the affordable care act. i would like to ask you this question, if you answer it. isn't it true there is no navigators tor undergo a criminal background check, even though they will sensitive personal information from the individuals they help sign up for the formal care at? >> that is true. part of the federal requirement. a a convicted felon could be navigator and acquirable -- acquire sensitive information on the notes to them? >> that is possible. they have taken the responsibility to screen individual navigators and make sure they are sufficiently trained for the job. it is possible. >> thank you very much. >> nice to see you. letterto start with a from a small business owner in hudson, one of the most conservative suburbs in our state. he said, i am a smaller -- father and small business owner and began my business in 2009. would sell me health insurance. i did not -- i could not get insurance at any price due to pre-existing conditions. now, my family is incurable. i get letters like this all the time. we all do. of people in all kinds of walks in life. senator menendez spoke of the difficulty of implementing a huge sold -- security program. back to your junior whennior in high school your father, member of congress, that fateful year, voted for medicare. i suppose he shared stories with you about the opposition. in those days, the leading republican politicians like congressman dole and rumsfeld and gerald ford voted against it. companies and the ama imposed medicare. the rolling out of it was so controversial, especially because medicare resulted in integrating southern hospitals and if you think this is controversial, what is happening now, imagine the difficulty a year after civil rights around the time of voting rights passing, that medicare forced hospitals to integrate. the whole view this is so controversial and so unprecedented when you roll out a new program, the important thing, i think, five years later people look back on medicare and thought, what was the big dear -- big deal and why were people so opposed? five years from now, or 48 years after medicare, what are people going to say about the affordable care act in five or 48 years? >> i am hopeful this will be another significant step forward in ensuring all americans have access to affordable health coverage, which is not what we can claim today. the only western country which does not have health care as a basic right. this is a significant feature for not only uninsured americans, and they will have access, for the first time, either to medicaid expansion or to affordable plans in the marketplace. also, those individuals who have been referred to a number of market, the individual the last marketplace where they do not enjoy the consumer protections every other person who has health care in their workplace and joys no pre- existing condition limitations. no medical underwriting. virtually 100% of people are medically underwritten. few are healthy, that is great. if not, you are in terrible trouble. these folks want health insurance. they want health insurance. i think this is a significant step forward, and when we will look back on, hopefully, and applaud the day we finally made significant step. republican and democratic presidents have been attempting to accomplish this. clearly, the opposition is still quite ferocious and i am hoping people understand what their options and benefits could be and what their opportunities are. >> thank you for that. the sender and i were just talking earlier. medicarepposed the drug expansion. i cannot speak for the reason he did. i did because it was too much of a giveaway and did not provide the level i thought it should for prescription drug benefit. it could have been done in a better way. i did -- we did something i know a number of people on our side of the aisle did. we helped -- we held town hall meetings and sent my staff out to help people, how can i sign up for prescription drug benefit. we helped constituents navigate a labyrinth and arduous path of how you get prescription drug benefits. my republican friends. it is the law. after this, i hope -- this disastrous rollout, i hope after ins my colleagues will work their states to help us work for the american people. i was hand -- handed a note from my staff. republican house members in ohio have gone so far as to tell constituents who have questions to call brown's office, because he voted for it and we did not. publicas a nation and officials, we do our jobs. we took an oath. i just hope we pull together and make the law worked as well as it can. >> thank you. the law, but a lobby administration has chosen to delay portions of. i think that has been done very discriminately. i think we all agree the rollout has been a failure of epic proportion's. there were a couple of front- page stories in politico today in which there was a tech expert quoted as saying, this might just be an error, but you cannot pass an undergraduate computer science class by making these mistakes. we have all talked a lot about it and we hope to get that right. i think eventually, that part will be gotten right. i believe this is fundamentally flawed legislation. seeing is higher rates and fewer jobs. when you pass something that has rating,axes, community all kinds of mandated coverages, i think it is inevitable you will see rates go up. the point is this was built upon a faulty foundation predicated upon a bunch of promises made to the american people, which are being broken. i want to come back too, because i think it is so fundamental to you debate, on june 14 2010 -- the role you said would make it on the president posses promise that americans can keep their health plan and dr. they like under the new law. did you read the regulation when you released it. >> yes, i did. >> if you read it, how could you possibly say this regulation will keep the president posses federalwent on register, your agency estimates up to 69% of employer provided plans and individual market plants, will lose their grandfathered status by 2014? >> i tried to explain to the sender that those estimates were made by the health economists who look back. that was a snapshot that had occurred in the individual market year in and year out. few people stay for more than a year. we were doing that as a backward look. on notice to insurance companies, you can basically any coming into compliance with the law by keeping the plans in place. that is basically what the grandfather clause said. fromt enormous pushback medical disease groups, advocacy , >> doesn'tth care it knowingly violate? -- the president and your promise that if you like your health care plan, you can keep it? there was not any caveat on that at the time. it was not like there were footnotes. it did not say, if you like your health care plan, you can keep canceled, or gets unless it gets changed, or unless we do not like it. it said, if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. the president said it over and over again. how can you go out knowing what you know and allow the president to continue to say that, and you and other administration members to say that? >> that is what the grandfather clause was all about in the first place. have i say, it was very controversial. we felt it was important. also, in the grandfather clause, with the samein caveat. i can tell you for the vast majority of people who get employer-based health care, are in a public plan or the v in the a plan, or medicare, and part of the insurance market, their plans are very much in place. in thes change coming individual marketplace, with consumer protections many people never enjoyed or experienced. not have the plan they had in 2013. >> youth and people -- americans in the market should be able to keep plant they like even if the government does not approve of them? >> if the plan was in place from the time the law was passed, that is what the grandfather clause said. >> i think most americans believe in grace. most americans are pretty forgiving people and so, they will tolerate and accept honest mistakes. to me, this is a dishonest mistake. thehave been misleading american people and the president has, over and over. i would much rather you just come up and say, we were wrong and we did not tell the truth. the pinocchio thing. you have four a yields on the statement. it strikes me people would be expected of it. take it off the white house website. it is not a true statement and never was. it is one of those things that when people were sold this, it was based upon. it is a tragedy the american people bought into this and that you all knew full well it would not be the case. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you for being here today. we appreciate your testimony. you testified in your opening statement that q ssi had been hired to do the coronation of the web and the hub? >> they have taken on a new role in the last couple of weeks of organizing the fixes going in. >> are you aware in june of this year, the inspector general issued a report, finding q ssi violating cms requirements on security that exposed 6 million medicare beneficiaries to private information? >> i can't -- i am aware. theyderstanding is basically inherited a contract from another contractor and did initially, various provisions in place. in themediately fix it transition and did self report that to us. >> they have a cost contract to do it they're doing echo is there a contract for them to correct that? >> it was corrected immediately. there is a provision to make sure they comply with all of the requirements. >> the whole subject of navigators, it will be the vein of my question. on the 20th of june asking, if for the requirements you are putting in to protect secure information, have not received an answer yet, understand you have been very busy, and i respect that. i will use my time to answer a couple of death assay couple of questions. what are you doing to ensure they protect private information they are supposed to of american mustens? >> the navigators go through a minimum of 20 hours training. a significant portion focuses on privacy and security issues. know, there is no personal health information never collected or needed. they do not have access to that, unlike and gas unlike an --urance agent today >> excuse me for interrupting. i want to be sure i get to -- under the irs code, there are a number of provisions for personal information being used. to estimate the subsidy someone will get, you would have to know their income. will the navigators be able to use the information to make the estimate? >> if the consumer chooses to share the information, they could give the consumer information about what they qualify for. >> i want to get to this point. the law prohibits insurance agents from being navigators unless they quit their job. it also has a medical loss ratio that basically allows insurance agents not to sell commission. be forors were meant to the american people and the obamacare law. in the state of georgia, my state has been so concerned about the risk they have made it a requirement every navigator have a pet -- a criminal background check in reference to the question asked by somebody previously, do you think there should be a similar requirement nationwide by your require -- department to make sure no navigator gets private information without a background check? >> there are probably 45,000 agents and brokers who have been trained on the affordable care act and are very much part of the process of reaching out to individuals. we did write the requirements for the navigators that very much nearer what many states have in place for licensed insurance agents, and then added a provision that states could indeed add additional requirements. a would you reject to requirement they have background checks? >> i think that -- if that is the will of congress, we would take a look at it. over to one shift other thing. my state is known for the capital city of atlanta and the vacation city of savannah. we are a very rural state. state, in a recent article in the new york times, the rates in rural georgia, particularly southeast georgia, are going up astronomically. is world america getting hit disproportionately hard because of the effects of the affordable care act on its premium rates? >> i was the governor of a rural state. i can tell you world america has always paid a higher price for health care than urban america. is less often a monopoly market. i do not think that has changed enough yet with the affordable care act. i think new competition in most markets in the country will begin to change that, particularly in this exchange market where people often have no choice and no competition. >> thank you for your testimony. thank you for being here today to answer some of these critical questions. chairman, i noticed in your opening remarks, you expressed frustration about the fact administration officials are saying you said they did not see the problems coming. i share that frustration. there were plenty of warnings. one was a letter i sent you back in august. i sent this to you and the director. i sent it because i was hearing a lot from ohio about problems with enrollment and particularly problems from ohio because they did not believe they were getting the answers they need from you. i asked a bunch of questions. the concern ohio could not think there was even a minimal amount of coordination. who in your agency is in charge. i also expressed my concern about what i knew about the i.t. concerns. comments that were pretty obvious, wondering whether those could be solved by october 1. i asked whether you had tested the technology, specifically whether systems were going to work and what the results were of the testing. i said i was concerned there would be a lot of confusion. unfortunately, there have been. the august letter still remains unanswered. i want to ask you today, who is in charge of the federal can -- inn ohio who ohio? is --inistrator tavener he oversees the agency. >> known for ohio? >> do we have n individual? >> accountable to the state of ohio? >> not for state, no. >> you talked about how you think you should not take down this site, a suggestion by the chairman and others. you said better to do routine updates while it is happening. are you testing the site? the agrades you are using? >> on regular basis. >> will you provide the results? regular -- i do not know what you're asking for. >> to the american people. dayesting is going on every we did with every piece of part oft that became the site. it was tested not only by the company and the contractor as it was presented, but there was a cms test performed. >> let me continue because i have a short time. a lot of stories from constituents. onuy says he tried to get for two leaks and found that his coverage was doubled. a woman called in having tough time making ends meet. -- telephoneof call and says she still has not heard back. the stories are out there. 12 million people nationally will lose the coverage they have. we talked about a lot of promises that were made. how many ohioans had their insurance plans canceled? do we know? >> i do not know. state that provide information, will we know how many? quek again, the federal government, these are private plans. ohio companies could give you that information. haveis not information we at the department of health and human services. these are private insurance companies. >> we will not know how many people? class you could ask the ohio insurance companies. that would be a great way to get the answer. >> insurance companies are canceling plans because the legislation you are implementing does not permit the plant because it does not meet your mandate. it would be helpful for you to know how many of the plans are being canceled. >> the customer is in a grandfather plan after -- they have not received a notice. i really do not -- >> you do not care about the data? >> i do, but you asked if i could give you the answer. i cannot tell you for ohio. >> let me ask a final question about covering the uninsured. we have talked about the promises. you keep the coverage, the cost being less rather than more. we have not talked about coverage. all of thisfter , over $1d bureaucracy trillion of consumer spending, and so on, there are still 30 million american 10 years from now after full implementation of this, that will not have health insurance? is that accurate? >> i hope it is not the case. >> do you believe it is accurate? >> i understand. i do not know what their premise is. behink that is not likely to true, if the program can be fully realized. >> do you have a number on that? >> i do not. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. about theed as i am huge problems with the website, i am more concerned with some of the underlying fundamental with thisblems legislation that are starting to manifest themselves. i want to share with you a few short e-mails from the hundreds and probably thousands of e- mails i have received from ofnsylvanians conveying some the concern, and, in particular, how the false promises are affecting real people, in this case, my constituents. i got an e-mail october 11 from a dad in pennsylvania and i will quote this. received notice last week my health care will more than tripled. i am currently paying 265 thousand dollars per month for me and my two young sons. on january 1 2014, the monthly premium will be $836 per month. the president promised you could keep your plan and families will save $2500 per year. i can teach my plan and i just cannot afford it. i qualify for subsidies. $80 a month. while there was a promise families would save money with this, it is clearly not the case for this family. there is another problem alluded to several times. we know famously the president and others have said, if you like your health -- health insurance, you can keep it. a woman from lancaster county sent me an e-mail. it is short. i will quote it. she said she is a two-time breast cancer survivor. president obama said if we like our insurance, we would be able to keep it. that was obviously untrue. ". that's untrue." i got an e-mail on october 7. said i've been self-employed for 1 years and have never been without health iven assurance. three years ago i was diagnosed with multiple scle loss sis. having a preexisting condition was not a problem for me as i had never let my insurance lafments my medication cost would be $4,000 per month without insurance. i received notice they were going to cancel my plan and i had to sign up for new coverage through the health insurance exchange. if my coverage is not in place before january 1 i will have to go without my medications. this will cause permanent disabilities, blindness and problems walking. any plan i find that would cover me channels me back to signing up through the exchange. i'm a small business owner and a productive member of society. i own my own house. now 50eu78 in trouble. we call this woman and we discuss this. it turned out there were two options available to her through the exchange. one option would allow her to continue to see the doctors that have been treating her. the other option would cover the medication, negotiate option would cover both. well it's clear to me they've been repeated many times, i think millions of times across the country. and it's a hugte problem. so i guess my question for you is i understand this administration is never going to want to repeal this bill. i get that. i understand you've delayed whole sections of it but don't want to delay the individual mandate for instance. my question is there r there any changes you want to recommend we could make to this bill so that the promises that were made by the president, by yourself, by others for these people, promises which clearly are not being kept could actually in fact be kept? are there any that you would recommend to us? >> senator, i'd be happy to work with members of congress who want to achieve the goals of the bill which are to provide for the first time affordable health coverage for millions of people who don't have it and an additional goal of the bill i would say is to in the marketplace, the last remaining market where people have been denied coverage because about a quarter of the people who seek insurance can't get it at all, medically underwritten, denied because of preexisting condition where they have an opportunity to move forward. if there is some framework that is you have in mind, what i really want to do is get the program up and running and get information to people about how they can take advantage of -- >> the program as it's designed, the bill as it's designed does not honor these promises. let me ask the grandfathering clause we all know has so many exceptions that many plans are simply not grandfathered. are you willing to reexamine the exceptions to the grandfathering clause so that many plans could be actually grandfathered? >> i don't think grandfathering perspectively can work very well and since companies are now in a the and you will market with an array of new are you plans. in plans. many have added consumer him many have added consumer protections in the last three and a half years. and in as you said, the regulation came out shortly after the bill was written. it provided a framework. we've been working with insurers as they look to what plans they would put in the new marketplace, what plans they would keep in place. and in and the grandfather clause has been part of that ongoing discussion. >> we're going to have to move on. thank you very much. >> thank you mr. chairman. i know you've probably seen lots of headlines. i don't know if you've seen this one, thousands face delay in healthcare enrollment. over 100,000 workers will be able to sign up as of october 1. the reason why i'm asking you about that particular headline is because it's from the boston globe august 3, 2006. and in that case, we do know the rest of the story. the rest of the story is that the governor of massachusetts estimated that only 123 consumers signed up in the first month but eventually tens of thousands did and now today the state has nearly universal coverage. they went from one in four people having insurance to uninsured being one in four to 2340u being one in ten. we know the results so to me it's a reminder of what our goal was which is to address double digit increases in insurance rates were preventing people from getting insurance coverage. so to me the issues of the website and software since it's part of a background i've had before, to me it's about writing code and getting things tested and it's very frustrating for andnd struggling for months months and months to get a scientific way to clean up that resource. that case it's about just getting the code right and making it work and making it function. in that case,

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