One of the groups of people that can’t seem to sign up for Obamacare is member of congress themselves. The top person in the House of Representatives came up with a backup plan on Friday, because lawmakers and their staff simply can’t enroll on the website like they should be able to. This is bad news for these lawmakers, because they only have until this Monday when their enrollment is scheduled to end. The problem came to a head on Thursday and Friday, when the staff began to complain about not being able to enroll through Washington Health Exchange, which is actually know as the D.C. Health Link. This is the sign up place for members of Congress and other staff that work with lawmakers.
On Thursday, CNN obtained an email that was sent out on Thursday by the Chief Administrator of the House of Representatives, landing in staffers inboxes and explaining the problem. “We have made the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and DC Health Link aware of the significant problems preventing Members and staff… from enrolling in a healthcare plan via the DC Health Link website,” said the email from Dan Strodel. Richard Sorian, who is the spokesman for DC Health Link said that there were no problems and no one had been kept from enrolling. “We have not had any capacity problems,” Sorian told CNN.
He did say that as the enrollment draws nearer the site volume has increased drastically. However, that is to be expected as last minute signups happen. Right now, only about half of congress and staffers have filled out applications. That means that there are many more that have not enrolled and there will likely continue to be huge surges of traffic. “I tried to get on the exchange, so did my staff, but none of us could,” said Hal Rogers, who is the House Appropriations Chairperson.
