Henry Chao, the deputy chief information officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the Obama Administration, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today that 30-40 percent of the "federally facilitated market place" system still needs to be built, including the back-office, accounting, and payment system.
"We still have to build the payment systems to make payments to issuers in January," Chao said, referring to the insurance companies that issue policies.
The complete incompetence of the administration to prepare for and manage the complexity of a takeover of nearly 18 percent of our economy – and, the most important, private part of every American's life – is beyond belief. It is inconceivable that the technical systems to handle the accounting and payments for a $2.5 trillion dollar industry that by law must be functional in six weeks "still needs to be built."
The video link below contains the exchange between Chao and Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO). The most pertinent information comes at about 2:45.
