A trio of Republican senators want the Obama administration to explain whether it will try to recoup taxpayer money spent on state-run health exchanges that didn’t pan out so well last year.
During confirmation hearings, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the government should use the “full extent of the law” to get the money back.
But GOP lawmakers say her counterpart at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Marilyn Tavenner, couched the effort as a state matter during a House oversight hearing in September.
“This response varies drastically from yours in May, as it reflects an administrative position that the recoupment of funds is now a state matter rather than one of federal jurisdiction and import,” Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Barrasso of Wyoming wrote Tuesday in a letter to Mrs. Burwell.
Various states that had lousy Obamacare exchange during the first round of sign-ups, such as Oregon and Maryland, have begun or threatened legal action against their contractors.
The GOP senators said the administration did not properly watch how more than $1 billion was spent on state-based health exchanges designed to carry out the health overhaul.
“This equates to hundreds of millions of dollars in government waste, and this issue needs to be addressed swiftly,” they wrote.
Two states, Oregon and Nevada, shifted over to the federal Obamacare website, HealthCare.gov, for the sign-up season that started on Saturday.
So far, the federal site and state-run exchanges — including ones that overhauled their technology — are running smoothly with few reported glitches, a stark turnaround from Obamacare’s inaugural round.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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