Sebelius to Blame Healthcare.gov Problems on Private Contractors

Yes, of course, it's somebody else's fault

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius plans to tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday that the private contractors who built HealthCare.gov are at fault for the site's many problems.

"To build the Marketplace, CMS [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] used private sector contractors, just as it does to administer aspects of Medicare," Sebelius says in her prepared testimony. "CMS has a track record of successfully overseeing the many contractors our programs depend on to function. Unfortunately, a subset of those contracts for HealthCare.gov have not met expectations."

Sebelius gives no further explanation in her opening remarks for the website's persistent problems, though she's sure to get a grilling from the Republican-led committee. More than two dozen House Republicans have called for her resignation, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the top Republican on the Senate health committee, joined them on Tuesday.