Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, will resign his post at the end of March, officials said Thursday. He had been accused by Republicans of misleading Congress about the readiness of the Obamacare rollout.
The Obama administration learned of the resignation Wednesday after it was announced in an email by his boss, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Cohen had been a California insurance regulator until he took the post in August, 2012. He had overseen regulatory implementation of the Obamacare health insurance marketplaces, roundly criticized by insurers and lawmakers.
Tavenner along with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, were the top officials with Cohen that assured Congress that Obamacare would be ready for the now infamous October 1, 2013 disastrous implementation of HealthCare.gov.
Republicans accused him of giving them misinformation. Cohen, who was not directly responsible for HealthCare.gov, blamed his reports on erroneous staff reports. But he was confronted face-to-face by two House of Representative Republicans in January angrily calling for his dismissal.
Cohen’s superior, Marilyn Tavenner wrote, “I asked Gary to make the personal sacrifice of moving to the East Coast and leaving his family to lead CCIIO. I am very grateful to Gary for his service and knew that the time would come when he would return home. He says that time is at the end of open enrollment.”
In other words, Cohen became a political scapegoat for his massive bureaucracy.
Obamacare is beginning to resemble “Peyton Place” more by the day.
