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发帖数: 29846 | 1 by: Alex Wayne
March 6, 2014
(Bloomberg) – Gary Cohen, the top U.S. health insurance regulator accused
by congressional Republicans of misleading them before the troubled start of
the Obamacare insurance website, will resign.
Cohen will step down as director of the Center for Consumer Information and
Insurance Oversight at the end of the month, when the first enrollment
period for the health-care law concludes, Marilyn Tavenner, the
administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Cohen’s
boss, said yesterday in an e-mail to employees. Cohen’s office is part of
Tavenner’s agency.
Cohen’s departure is voluntary, Tavenner said. His agency devised the
regulations for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s insurance
exchanges, though it wasn’t responsible for building healthcare.gov, the
federal exchange that failed in October, leaving millions of Americans
unable to enroll in health plans. Cohen’s office also monitors insurers’
premiums and enforces consumer protections under the health law.
“Under his leadership, CCIIO established the rules which have made the
promise of the Affordable Care Act a reality for millions of Americans who
now can have the security of health coverage without regard to their
previous health condition, and can know that their insurance will cover all
the most common services they will need,” Tavenner said.
Cohen will be replaced on an interim basis by Mandy Cohen, a medical doctor
who manages consumer assistance for the agency, Tavenner said. Cohen’s
departure was reported earlier by Politico.
Contentious Hearing
Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, told the U.S. Health Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius during a hearing Oct. 30 that she should ask for Cohen’s
resignation. He had “misled” Congress in testimony prior to the Oct. 1
opening of the federal health insurance exchange website, Burgess said, by
insisting that any problems would be minor and the project was largely on
schedule.
Sebelius refused, telling lawmakers to “hold me accountable” for
healthcare.gov’s failures.
Cohen was an attorney, an insurance executive and an insurance regulator in
California before taking over the federal agency in August 2012. Tavenner’s
e-mail was silent on Cohen’s future, saying only that he would “return
home.” Cohen didn’t respond to an e-mail asking about his plans. |
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