A top federal health official found “disarray” within the White House healthcare team several months before ObamaCare’s exchanges launched, according to a report.
Emails obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request and published by the Washington Examiner revealed Anton Gunn’s apparent frustration with his counterparts in the West Wing.
{mosads}Gunn is the former director of external affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who recently left for the private sector.
The emails contained his back-and-forth with Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America, in May to discuss efforts to prepare for the exchanges’ launch on Oct. 1.
“I think we need to have a Come to Jesus meeting with our friend over there,” Gunn wrote of an unnamed White House official. “I think they are in disarray. I don’t know who’s in charge on healthcare.”
Enroll America is an outside group created to encourage the uninsured to sign up for health plans on ObamaCare’s exchanges.
The emails shed light on communications between the White House, HHS and their nongovernment allies in summer 2013.
President Obama has said he was not informed before October about the vast technical problems facing the exchanges.
HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters told the Examiner that the administration worked collaboratively before Oct. 1 to “get the word out about enrollment through education and outreach efforts, such as travel by principals, online chats, media interviews and coordination with partners on the ground.”