John Cornyn accuses HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell of showing contempt

During a hearing on the Health and Human Services (HHS) department budget, Secretary Sylvia Burwell had a contentious exchange with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, over whether the administration has a contingency plan should it lose the Supreme Court case that will be argued this session over the fate of the health care law.

The case, King v. Burwell, deals with whether the federal government can give subsidies to Obamacare recipients in states with federally-run health care exchanges.

Cornyn asked Burwell, "If the administration loses in the King vs. Burwell case, do you believe you already have the authority to make an administrative fix, or will you come to congress to ask for additional legislation?"

Burwell said in response that she was focused on implementation and believed the law would stand. Cornyn, at that point, appealed to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and complained that for Burwell "to come here and repeatedly refuse to answer the questions strikes me as nothing less than contempt of our oversight responsibility."

Burwell also gave senators an update on health care enrollment, telling them that 10 million people have signed up for health care coverage on the exchanges for 2015 - about 7.5 million on the federal exchange and 2.4 million on state exchanges.

Separately, in a statement from HHS, Burwell said that 87 percent of those who have signed up on HealthCare.gov qualify for subsidies.

By Jan. 30, 7,473,699 Americans obtained coverage from the federal marketplace, and 10,124,772 applications for coverage had been submitted.

A breakdown by states shows that Floridians signed up in the highest numbers -- around 1.3 million, followed by Texans, with almost 970,000.

The open enrollment period for health care coverage for 2015 ends on Feb. 15.