





The early Healthcare.gov access has been a "miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday, apologizing for those frustrations.

"I don't think anyone ever estimated the degree to which we've had problems in the system," she said in sworn testimony before a House committee. Many Republicans have called for her resignation, which she has so far resisted. She also acknowledged that the frustration wasn't just among consumers—insurers have been left hanging by the site's problems. "I would tell you right now it's not reliable data. According to the insurance companies who are eager to have customers, they are not getting reliable data all the way through the system," Sebelius said.



Sebelius told the House Energy and Commerce Committee she's accountable for fixing the problems—by the end of November.

"Michelle Snyder is not responsible for the debacle, hold me responsible for the debacle," Sebelius said, resisting efforts to assign blame to Snyder, the chief operating officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

She added that the system is getting better by the day.

But as the hearing got underway, consumers trying to log in from Virginia got this message: "The system is down at the moment." "The website has never crashed. It is functional but at a very slow speed and very low reliability," Sebelius acknowledged.



Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the troubled launch of the Healthcare.gov website October 30, 2013 in Washington, DC Getty Images