Emails Show Feds Knew Months Ago ObamaCare Site Headed for Delay

Newly released emails show officials designing the main ObamaCare exchange knew as early as August that the website catering to small businesses might have to be delayed — though the administration did not announce the delay until shortly before the Oct. 1 launch.

In one of the August emails, HealthCare.gov project manager Henry Chao responded to a proposal to delay the launch by writing: “Can we sign this with blood?”

The details were included in a handful of emails released Friday by Republican lawmakers probing the troubled launch. The lawmakers charged that the communications offer more evidence that the administration kept quiet for months about urgent problems with the website.

“As the paper trail broadens, we see more and more evidence that the administration was fully aware its signature health care law was not ready for prime time,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said. “The documents we are now reviewing tell a much, much different story than what officials testified to Congress.”

The emails pertained to the online SHOP Marketplace, which is meant for small businesses and has suffered a series of setbacks. The administration announced in late September that it was pushing off the launch until mid-November. But then one day before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would push off online enrollment by another year.

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