The Republican National Committee is sending a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday. The GOP body is seeking information on the number of Americans who have successfully enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges through Healthcare.gov.
The web portal to the Obamacare exchanges has been plagued by problems since its opening on Oct. 1. To date, the Obama administration has failed to release official enrollment numbers.
In its FOIA, the RNC specifically seeks:
- “Any and all data recording each successful purchase of a health insurance policy…on any of the Affordable Care Act exchanges administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services…”
- “Any and all documents or communications, including but not limited to relevant emails and letters, regarding the collection of successful enrollee data on or after October 1, 2013…”
An RNC spokesman explained to The Daily Caller that the GOP body has only issued a few FIOAs this year and only does so when it believes the administration is not being forthcoming with important information.
“[Health and Human Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on this website, but Americans trying to use it have gotten little more than error messages and crashing web pages,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.
“It’s important for Americans to see these numbers because they illustrate just how terrible the system is and how poorly designed the law was,” he added. “The administration isn’t living up to its promises, and they must be held accountable.”
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to examine the Obamacare rollout failures on Thursday. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has refused to testify before the panel.
Reuters reports that an unnamed administration official said Saturday that nearly half a million people have applied for health insurance under Obamacare. Official numbers are expected to be released in November.