U.S. House of Representatives
​Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative,

January 15, 2014

You will soon consider H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act. The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide the transparency on Obamacare that Congress has been asking for, such as detailed reports on the status of the Healthcare.gov website and more precise information on weekly enrollment numbers. On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support this legislation.

The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on December 11, 2013 with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a witness. In the hearing, the secretary admitted that when she uses the word enrollment, it means people have “chosen a plan” but have not necessarily paid their first month’s premium. She said she would provide those numbers as soon as HHS had them.

On January 13, HHS issued its third report on enrollment numbers. While it revealed that 1.2 million Americans have selected a plan, it did not specify how many people have paid their first premium and are covered by insurance. This is akin to someone selecting five books and putting them in their online shopping cart. Until the books are purchased, selecting means nothing just as choosing a health insurance plan does not mean someone has purchased coverage.

Taxpayers do not know with accuracy how many young people have purchased a private plan in the exchange and are covered, a figure the administration has admitted needs to be around 40 percent of enrollees for the healthcare law to work. The percentage of Medicaid enrollments that are new and eligible to be in the program or are simply renewals has also not been revealed. Information on how well the Healthcare.gov website is performing, especially the interface between insurers and the government, is also missing.

CCAGW agrees with Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), the sponsor of H.R. 3362, who said, “It’s obvious the Obama administration is desperate to avoid any effort to get the facts. What exactly are they so afraid we’ll find if we have real-time transparency?”

The obfuscation by HHS to provide accurate and detailed enrollment numbers needs to stop. It is time to tell Congress and taxpayers exactly how many people have successfully purchased health insurance and how the Healthcare.gov website is performing. All votes on H.R. 3362 will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2014 Congressional Ratings.