Obama Administration Concedes, Hands Obamacare Site to Private Sector for Fixes

After months of confusion and an unending stream of questions from the press, the White House announced Tuesday it would hand the error-plagued Obamacare website over to former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene to fix.

Former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene has been tapped to lead efforts to fix healthcare.gov (AP)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the official announcement Tuesday.

“Kurt has proven expertise in heading large, complex technology teams and in product development,” Sebelius said in a blog post. “He will be a tremendous asset in our work.”

The former tech executive, who is married to Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington state Democrat, is expected to head the effort to fix the Obamacare website for at least the first six months of 2014, Politico reported.

“I’ve long said that we need more people to enter public service who are focused on delivering results,” Rep. DelBene said in a statement. “Kurt has demonstrated throughout his career that he is about results, and his decision to join the administration will be extremely valuable to their efforts to improve the website.”

DelBene, who will replace White House adviser Jeffrey Zients, is expected to use his experience as a tech leader to get the healthcare.gov website up and running.

Zients’ exit comes after he was initially brought in to manage the site after its disastrous launch on Oct 1. For his part, the White House adviser says he did what he was asked to do that he met his goal of having the site work smoothly “for the majority of users.”

Zients will likely be tapped to head the National Economic Council in 2014.

Dec. 23 is the deadline to enroll for coverage effective Jan. 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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