Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary, apologized on Wednesday for glitches attached with the web site HealthCare.gov where millions have had difficulties shopping for their insurance, telling Congress that she is largely "responsible" attached to its problems, The Associated Press reported.
"Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible," Sebelius said during a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The secretary promised to have the problems fixed by November 30 even as conservative Republicans who have been opposed to the healthcare law, are seeking her resignation. The technical issues with the site include frozen screens and error messages.
The web site intended to be an 'online gateway for millions of uninsured Americans, as well those who purchase their policies individually. Many people in the latter group will have to get new insurance next year, because their policies do not meet the standards of the new law," The AP reported.
Sebelius' testimony comes one day after Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner was questioned for nearly three hours by members of the House Ways and Means Committee "who wanted to know why so many of their constituents were getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies," news reports said.
"To the millions of Americans who've attempted to use HealthCare.gov to shop and enroll in health care coverage, I want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should. We know how desperately you need affordable coverage. I want to assure you that HealthCare.gov can and will be fixed, and we are working around the clock to deliver the shopping experience that you deserve," Tavenner on Tuesday.
While accepting blame for problems with the site, Sebelius also said that a government contractor, Verizon's Terremark unit, was also responsible for outages that disrupted the website on Sunday and Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
