Judicial Watch: Obamacare Website Launched With Several Security Concerns

Newly released documents show there were several security concerns with the Obamacare website when it was launched — and people behind the scenes knew all about them.

Judicial Watch obtained hundreds of pages of documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents provide a glimpse of the chaos that was happening in the days and weeks before the Obamacare website was launched in October 2013.

Mitre Corporation was the project's security testing contractor and recommended to deny the Obamacare website from operating in the month before it was officially launched, citing the inability to adequately test the website and its detailed system.

When the website went live on Oct. 1, 2013, an "Authorization to Operate" document had not been signed by Blue Canopy, the project's validation contractor. That company, according to Judicial Watch, said it was able to access data "that should not be publicly accessible."

The documents also reveal that people behind the project, such as healthcare.gov IT security Chief Tom Schankweiler, expressed concerns at the lack of security protocols that were working. Various employees at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), meanwhile, complained that making security-related fixes to the website would be politicized because the system would have to be taken offline.

"Obamacare is corrupt, as we see further proof in these FOIA documents that sensitive health information on millions of Americans was put at risk," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "From its start, Obamacare was a project that its promoters were determined to inflict on us whether it was ready or not. And clearly it was not.

"Anyone who uses the Obamacare website does so at great risk to their private information. Let this be a lesson for those in Washington who are now trying to clean up this mess."

Republicans tried to pass the American Health Care Act, their Obamacare replacement bill, last month but resistance from some members of the party resulted in the vote being scrapped. President Donald Trump and GOP leaders are working to garner more support for the legislation.