Sebelius To Visit Phoenix, Discuss Health Exchanges

By Peter O'Dowd
Published: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - 5:25pm
Updated: Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 8:52am
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will be visiting Phoenix this week.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is under pressure to restore confidence in the federal healthcare exchange's dysfunctional website. She will be in Phoenix on Thursday.

Some people who want to join the new federally subsidized health plans have been trying to enroll unsuccessfully since Oct. 1. The pressure is mounting on Secretary Sebelius to fix the website’s software problems or resign.

She will make two stops in Phoenix on Thursday. The first will be at a call center for the Health Insurance Marketplace. The other is at the Wesley Health Center where Sebelius will meet with local organizations that have been trained as "navigators." These navigators were hired to help people register and enroll in the program, but with all the technical problems the organizations say they have not gotten much accomplished.