Obama health official apologizes for broken web site

Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, apologized Tuesday before a congressional panel for the botched launch of HealthCare.Gov.



“I want to apologize to [the American people] that the website has not worked as well as it should,” she said. “We know how desperately you need affordable coverage … this initial experience has not lived up to our expectations or the expectations of the American people and it is not acceptable.”


 Tavenner was the first Obama administration official to face angry Congressional critics over the bungled healthcare rollout.

Her agency is overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.



House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) kicked off the public grilling by saying Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told his committee “a dozen times that the administration would be ready” for the Oct. 1 rollout date.



“We now know this administration was not ready,” he said, adding that if CMS had been more transparent about the problems it faced in the run-up, “many of these glitches could have been avoided.”