Sebelius admits Obamacare will raise health insurance premiums in 2015 and tells Congress to expect 'no delay beyond March 31' for the individual mandate 
 
 The HHS secretary faced a hostile House Ways and Means panel on Wednesday 
 
 She conceded that health insurance rates will be higher next year, but suggested that they will rise 'at a slower pace' than they have so far 
 
 But despite delaying fines and penalties for businesses, she said there would be 'no delay' for enforcing the Obamacare law against individuals 
 
 
 
 Sebelius also insisted that she doesn't know how many enrollees have paid for coverage and are actually insured 
 
 
 
 Seven states have managed to publish data showing how many new insurance customers are paying first-month premiums 
 
 
 
 Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told House Ways and Means Committee members on Wednesday that she expects health insurance rates to increase as the Affordable Care Act takes full effect. 
 
 'I think premiums are likely to go up,' she conceded under questioning, 'but go up at a slower pace' than they have already under Obamacare. 
 
 President Obama famously promised in 2008 and 2009 that his health insurance overhaul plan would lower the cost of health care for an average family by $2,500 per year. 
 
 
 
 And as a March 31 deadline approaches, the date when Americans will face fines if they don't have medical insurance, Sebelius told the panel that there will be 'no delay' in enforcing that so-called individual mandate. 
 
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 A frustrated Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius fended off tough questions from Republicans who are still eager to cripple President Barack Obama's healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act 
 
 'How is that fair?' demanded Rep. Kevin Brady (R), talking about the administration's Obamacare delays affecting big businesses, but not individuals and families 
 
 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille said during a conference call on Tuesday that 'we have no plans to extend the open enrollment period' that began amid fits and starts on October 1. 
 
 
 
 'In fact, we don't actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014,' she said. 
 
 
 
 On Wednesday, Republican Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp asked Sebelius if she agreed. 
 
 'I haven’t seen their statements,' she replied, despite having been on the conference call, 'but there is no delay beyond March 31.' 
 
 Republicans in Congress have castigated the Obama administration for failing to delay the individual mandate, even as it has made more than 35 changes to the Affordable Care Act, including some that defy date-specific deadlines in the written in the law's text. 
 
 One of those changes was a year-long delay in the employer mandate, which requires companies with 50 or more employees to certify that their workers are covered by medical insurance plans that meet Obamacare's strict minimum standards. 
 
 'If you delayed this law because it’s not workable for businesses, why aren’t you delaying this law because it’s not workable for our families?' blasted Texas GOP Rep. Kevin Brady during Wednesday's hearing. 
 
 'How is that fair?' 
 
 Georgia Rep. Tom Price demanded to know how many Obamacare enrollees have paid for their insurance plans, but Sebelius insisted 'I don't know that' 
 
 Sebelius appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee in a hearing about HHS's budget request for 2015 
 
 Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer lashed out at HHS for its insistence that it is prohibited from delaying for individuals what it has already relayed for large companies. 
 
 'It is puzzling that Secretary Sebelius is now concerned with a lack of statutory authority when it comes to delaying the individual mandate,' Fischer said in a statement. 'The administration has already issued nearly two dozen Obamacare delays, including those for big business and the president’s political allies.' 
 
 Fischer has introduced a bill that would explicitly give the White House the power to delay that individual mandate. 
 
 In your face: Nebraska GOP Sen. Deb Fischer has crafted a bill that would give HHS the authority to push back the individual mandate deadline as far as it likes 
 
 House Republicans are slated to vote this week on a similar bill, but the measure would face a certain veto at the White House. 
 
 
 
 Sebelius also insisted that she doesn't know how many Obamacare enrollees have paid for coverage and are actually insured. 
 
 
 
 'I can’t tell you because I don’t know that,' she told Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price. 
 
 
 
 The Obama administration trumpeted new numbers on Tuesday showing that 4.2 million Americans have selected medical insurance policies during the open enrollment period 
 
 
 
 But a MailOnline analysis showed that in the seven states which have published both enrollment and payment numbers, insurers haven't seen payments from 21 per cent of those who have signed up. 
 
 If that percentage were to hold true nationally, HHS's boast of 4.2 million enrollments would shrink by 900,000. 
 
 Camp, a Michigan Republican, said Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act 'is not working as it was promised. And yet, the president’s budget doubles down on this law, requesting another $1.8 billion for its implementation.' 
 
 Democrats, however – including President Obama – are insisting that the law is performing as well as it was expected to. 

 ObamaCare's implementers continue to roam the battlefield and shoot their own wounded, and the latest casualty is the core of the Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate. To wit, last week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty. 
 
 This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice, and the Health and Human Services Department didn't think the details were worth discussing in a conference call, press materials or... 

 This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records 

 This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records 

 The Obama administration will not delay ObamaCare's individual mandate or the March 31 deadline for enrolling in the new healthcare law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday. 
 
 Sebelius ruled out the changes during testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, where Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) noted the administration has made dozens of other changes or delays to the law. 
 
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 Given the problems caused by ObamaCare's faulty website last year, Brady asked Sebelius directly if delays to the individual mandate or enrollment deadline would be next. 
 
 “No, sir,” Sebelius responded. 
 
 Republicans have denounced the administration's refusal to make changes to the individual mandate and enrollment deadline even as it made changes to the law to benefit other groups. 
 
 Most notably, the administration has repeatedly delayed the mandate that employers offer their employees insurance. 
 
 House Republicans have decried that as a "double standard," and will vote this week on legislation that would delay the individual mandate for five years. The money saved from that action would be used to prevent a reduction in payments to doctors under Medicare. 
 
 The vote is expected to be a tough choice for many Democrats, given ObamaCare's unpopularity. The defeat of a Democrat in Tuesday's special election in Florida is exacerbating worries that the new law will be a drag on Democrats in this year's midterm elections. 
 
 Sebelius defended the delay of the employer mandate at Wednesday's hearing. 
 
 She said that the great majority of business owners, 94 percent, have fewer than 50 employees and are not affected by the law, and argued that the employer mandate delay was minor in the overall scheme of things because it would only reach about 2 percent of businesses nationwide. 
 
 Brady argued that delaying the employer mandate but not the individual mandate was unfair. 
 
 “How is it fair that you’ve delayed this law because it’s not workable for businesses of all sizes, but it’s not workable for families?” Brady asked Wednesday. “Why aren’t they getting the same treatment?” 
 
 On a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille said even if officials wanted to, her agency didn’t have the authority to delay the enrollment deadline. 
 
 "We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period," Bataille said. "In fact, we don't actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014." 
 
 House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) asked Sebelius, who was on that conference call, whether she agreed with that assessment. 
 
 “I haven’t seen their statements, but there is no delay beyond March 31,” she said. 
 
 More than 4.2 million people have enrolled in ObamaCare as of March 1. 
 
 There are less than three weeks left in open enrollment, and it seems increasingly unlikely the administration will hit the original Congressional Budget Office projections of enrolling 7 million people between October and March. 
 
 That projection was downgraded to 6 million following the early troubles with HealthCare.gov, and officials have sought to temper expectations since the botched rollout essentially shaved two months off the six-month open enrollment period. 
 
 During Tuesday's conference call with reporters, Bataille was asked repeatedly if the administration expected to hit the 6 million mark. She declined to answer, saying only that the administration expects “millions more” will sign up eventually. 
 
 Sebelius was similarly vague on Wednesday when pressed by Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) about what enrollment figure would constitute the rollout being deemed a success. In a September interview, Sebelius said success would be more than 7 million people signing up by March 31. 
 
 “Success looks like millions of people with affordable health coverage, which we will have by the end of March,” she said at the hearing.
– Few noticed last week, but the White House just gave millions of Americans a two-year reprieve from having to buy health care—at least according to the Wall Street Journal. Buried in a seven-page bulletin, the Obama administration granted an exemption for anyone whose insurance was canceled and who says (without proof) that it was a "hardship" getting health insurance, or health-care plans were too pricey. Such an exemption from the ObamaCare mandate was only scheduled to last a year, but will now last two, the Journal explains. The newspaper criticizes President Obama for the change, noting that "hardship" has gone from meaning the "truly down and out" to anyone short of cash, while the mandate got sidelined over "the implementation fiasco and politics." But is the Journal getting upset over a technicality? Kathleen Sebelius' testimony today at the House Ways and Means Committee may say as much: Asked whether the March 31 enrollment deadline and the individual mandate will be delayed, she said simply, "No, sir," the Hill reports. She added that health-insurance prices will probably keep rising, but not as much as they have been, the Daily Mail reports.