Obama Changes Tune On Health Care Coverage Mantra
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The Affordable Care Act website has been plagued with issues since going live more than a month ago and new bugs continue to be uncovered.
In addition to website woes, President Barack Obama has now changed what he's been saying about his health care plan since it passed in 2010.
As CBS 2's Dick Brennan reported, President Obama has long said those who are insured would be able to keep their plans, coverage and doctors under the Affordable Care Act.
The president has repeatedly made his point, saying things like "if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your healthcare plan, you'll be able to keep your healhcare plan, period."
But in a change of tune, the president on Monday night said that the period comes with a comma and a big "if."
"If you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you could keep it - if it hasn't changed since the laws passed," Obama said Monday.
White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the new line during his daily briefing on Tuesday.
"The president, as awesomely powerful as the office is, can't go back in time," Carney said. "And what the president's focused on is what we're all focused on, which is getting this right for the American people."
The website has been criticized for its lackluster performance, with just a fraction of those who've tried to sign up for health insurance being able to do so successfully.
And now there seems to be another thing the website didn't get right.
CBS News reports a final security test was never performed before the site went online. South Carolina attorney Thomas Dougall and his wife registered, only to find their private information sent to a man in North Carolina.
"It's just a system that we've been continually told was secure and now I've found out it's not secure," Dougall said.
"On this incident in South Carolina, we actually were made aware of it yesterday and we implemented a software fix yesterday to fix that," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
She was grilled again before Congress. Last week, she appeared before a House committee to testify on the website woes.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will make her second trip in as many weeks to the Hill for more tough questions.
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