Issa to Obamacare Official: ‘You Need to Watch More Fox News’

During House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s field-hearing road tour Monday afternoon, he told an official overseeing the Affordable Care Act’s implementation in Texas that “he needed to watch more Fox News.”

The comment came during a back-and-forth with Randy Farris, regional administrator for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Farris was asked if he was aware that all applicant information was stored on the federal site, where navigators could access it. When Farris responded that private information was not kept there, Issa told him, “You need to watch more Fox, I’m afraid.”

The comment reportedly received boos from the audience, which was partially comprised of ACA supporters.

The navigators program, which oversees a staff that handles Obamacare applications one-on-one, has come under fire from Issa and other Republicans for inadequately vetting and training navigators, as well as for incidents in which navigators allegedly told applicants to misrepresent personal information to receive lower premiums or qualify for a subsidy. A Fox News clip showing two navigators hired in Irving, TX, allegedly misleading an applicant was played during the hearing; Farris said the two navigators had been disciplined.

In a competing op-ed in the Dallas Morning News yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the program.

Texas, which rejected both the Medicaid expansion and the state exchange under the ACA, has the highest uninsured rate in the nation.

[h/t Dallas Morning News]

[Image via USNews]

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