House oversight panel probes health website woes investigating whether White House played a role in

(13 Nov 2013) Probing whether the White House shares blame for health care website woes, the House's chief investigator Wednesday plunged into the technical issues behind the dysfunctional rollout of HealthCare.gov. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is exploring a long list of issues: insufficient testing, possible security flaws, design shortcomings _ even allegations of political meddling. It was the sixth major congressional hearing since President Barack Obama's computerized insurance markets went live Oct. 1 and millions of consumers encountered frozen screens. A key issue for Issa is why the administration required consumers to first create online accounts at HealthCare.gov before they could shop for health plans. That runs counter to the common e-commerce practice of allowing anonymous window-shopping. Outside experts say it increased the workload on a wobbly system. Republicans suspect a political motive; Democrats say the explanation has to do with technical issues. The hearing comes during a week in which the administration is expected to release tightly held enrollment numbers for October. They are believed to amount to only a small fraction of the nearly 500,000 initial signups that officials had projected a month before the trouble-plagued website's launch. The committee is hearing from Todd Park, the White House chief technology officer. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...