Consultants Red-Flagged ObamaCare —in March

Nobody was looking at big picture, McKinsey found
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2013 3:03 AM CST
Consultants Raised Red Flags Before ObamaCare Launch
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Add consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to the list of who can now say "I told you so" about the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare. A private consulting team brought in to assess the mammoth project warned back in March that the launch of HealthCare.gov could be risky—and many of its criticisms now appear extremely justified, the Washington Post finds. After reviewing hundreds of documents and speaking to dozens of workers, McKinsey warned that "evolving requirements" would leave little time to test the website before launch and that there was no "end-to-end operational view" in place as contractors built different parts of the system—with no single person in charge.

Senior White House and Department of Health and Human Services officials, including Kathleen Sebelius, were present when McKinsey delivered its reports, according to a House subcommittee whose Republican chairman says the assessment shows the administration knew more than it let on about potential problems. The White House, however, says "flags were definitely raised throughout the development of the website," and some of them were acted upon, "but nobody anticipated the size and scope of the problems we experienced once the site launched." McKinsey declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. (More ObamaCare stories.)

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