Politics

Obamacare website used by congressional staff crashes

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The website used by congressional staffers to sign up for Obamacare crashed on Thursday morning.

A mass email sent to all Senate staffers on Thursday said the website for DC Health Link — Washington, D.C.’s new health insurance marketplace — was not working.

“At this time DC Health Link is experiencing technical difficulties with their website,” the email said. “They believe the system should be back up and running by noon today. They apologize for the inconvenience.”

Responding to that email, one Hill staffer cracked: “Perhaps this is why Harry Reid is exempting his employees from the exchanges?”

That’s in reference to reports that Reid — the Democratic leader in the Senate — is letting some of his aides stay on their current health insurance plans instead of having to enroll on the Obamacare exchanges, as other staffers are required to do.

The news has riled up Republicans. Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina slammed the Democrat over the issue on Thursday.

“Harry Reid’s decision to exempt certain members of his staff from ObamaCare sums up everything that’s wrong with Washington today,” Duncan said. “Harry Reid rammed a partisan healthcare bill through the Senate that most Americans didn’t want, and now it seems that members of his own staff don’t want ObamaCare either.”

The issue appears to to have been resolved. “The log-in system was down for less than an hour,” Health Link spokesman Richard Sorian told The Daily Caller. “It’s back up and running fine.”

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Tags : senate
Alex Pappas