Government website used to sign up for Obamacare, with familiar notice that “the system isn’t available right now.”

Health Impact News Editor Comments

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report this week on Obamacare, including a security audit of the government website used to sign people up for health exchanges.

Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson writes that the GAO report shows that there are serious security risks in putting personal information into HealthCare.gov, and that the administration knew about these security risks before the website was even launched.

GAO Director of Information Security Issues Greg Wilhusen concludes in the GAO report: “Until these weaknesses are addressed, the systems and the information they contain remain at increased risk of unauthorized use, disclosure, modification, or loss.”

Attkisson uncovered serious security flaws with the government system back in 2013 in stories she wrote for CBS News. Attkisson writes:

Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, explicitly recommended the website should not be launched Oct. 1, 2013, due to security concerns, but was overruled by her superiors. Fryer said she had warned, both verbally and in a briefing, that the website carried “high [security] risks” and possible exposure to “attacks.” Fryer also said that she refused to put her name on a letter recommending the website be given a temporary authority to operate while the issues were sorted out.  Fryer indicated that she was frustrated by fellow CMS officials who were not providing a true picture of security testing prior to the launch.

“I am tired of the cover ups,” she emailed a colleague, stating that she intended to give “a truthful update of exactly what was going on” to an official at Health and Human Services who had asked for a status report. (Source.)

Judicial Watch also is reporting that they have obtained 94 pages of documents  from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing that in the days leading up to the rollout of Obamacare, top Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials knew of massive security risks with Healthcare.gov and chose to roll out the website without resolving the problems.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch writes:

“These are more smoking gun documents that the Obama administration knowingly put the privacy of millions of Americans at risk through Obamacare’s healthcare.gov ‘marketplace,’” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “And these documents show that this administration was concerned about the political problems of the security flaws but couldn’t care less about the threat to privacy of millions of innocent Americans.  Given what we now know about Obamacare’s security, I have little doubt that Healthcare.gov is in danger of being in violation of federal privacy laws.  If you share private information on Healthcare.gov or a related Obamacare site, you should assume that your private information is unsecure and at risk at being hacked.” (Source.)

Obama Lied to Congress Regarding Taxpayer Dollars Used to Fund Elective Abortions

Kelsey Harkness of The Daily Signal reports that despite President Obama’s 2009 promise that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,” the GAO report found that under Obamacare, taxpayers subsidize over 1,000 insurance plans that cover elective abortions.

Is Government Fraud in Healthcare now the Norm?

Still yet to come from the GAO office is a report on why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund has accumulated $3.5 BILLION in 2014.  Given the recent confessions made by a senior CDC Whistleblower from the Vaccine Department, admitting that data linking vaccines to autism has been withheld, we fully expect Representative Darrell Issa, the House Oversight Chairman, to conduct hearings regarding fraud at the CDC as soon as possible.