In another tweet, Huelskamp wrote:
âShutdown or no shutdown, we are ready to go, to start enrolling people tomorrow,â Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a press conference Monday. âWe are about to make some history and some very positive history for lots of families around the country.â
According to ABC News:
Sebelius said about 52 percent of HHS employees will be deemed unessential and furloughed, but that will not affect any workers in the call centers or ânavigatorsâ tasked with helping people to sign up. Most of the funding for the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was provided in the law so it would not be affected even if the federal government shuts down.
Sebelius did say it was âhard to tellâ how a prolonged shutdown could affect implementation of the law down the road, though.
âThat begins to look more serious the longer it takes,â Sebelius said, noting that much of  HHSâ operations will be covered under âmandatory money.â
She also acknowledged that there were bound to be âglitchesâ when the new insurance marketplaces come online Tuesday morning, and people  begin to sign up. HHS is running all or part of the marketplace exchanges in 36 states; the others will be handled by each state individually. She compared that possibility to Appleâs latest software upgrade, which asked users to download an additional update to fix problems with the initial update.
The House voted later in the night on procedural measures in regards to the continuing resolution. Republicans are seeking to appoint a “conference committee” to come up with a funding measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded to that idea saying, “We will not go to conference with a gun to our head.”