Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was visibly unhappy during today’s House hearing on the disastrous rollout of Healthcare.gov. He was particularly incensed about a Republican question regarding why Healthcare.gov includes a warning, invisible to most users, that the site comes with no expectation of privacy. The site handles Americans’ personal, private information, and most Americans probably assumed that it would handle their information judiciously.
Pallone responded to that question with a rant and soon lost his temper.
PALLONE: “Thank you, mr. chairman. I started out in my opening statement saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing and the last line of the questioning certainly confirms that. HIPA only applies when there’s health information being provided. That’s not in play here today. No health information is required in the application process. And why is that? Because pre-existing conditions don’t matter! So once again, here we have my Republican colleagues trying to scare everybody –”
CHAIRMAN: “If the gentleman will yield?”
PALLONE: “No, I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever –”
CHAIRMAN: “This is not a monkey court.”
PALLONE: “Do whatever you want. I am not yielding. I am trying to tell you that the problem here –”
CHAIRMAN: “Protecting american citizens –”
PALLONE: “No pre-existing condition. Pre-existing conditions don’t matter. HIPA doesn’t apply. There is no health information in the process. You’re asked about your address, your date of birth. You are not asked health information. So why are we going down this path? Because you are trying to scare people so they don’t apply and so therefore the legislation gets delayed or the Affordable Care Act gets defunded or it’s repealed. That’s all it is, hoping people won’t apply.
Pallone went on from there to blame Republican governors for some of Obamacare’s rolling chaos. Watch video below.
