Working to Protect Americans' Personal Data from Obamacare Website Security Risks

Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Steve Daines has joined Representative Ron Barber (D-AZ) to introduce legislation that would require the federal government to develop and put in place cybersecurity safeguards to protect individuals' personal health care information on the Obamacare website.

The Cyber Awareness and Recovery Enhancement (CARE) Act would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take the lead in developing cybersecurity standards for the healthcare.gov website.

"Since the launch of healthcare.gov, millions of Americans' personal information has been placed at risk by using the health exchange website. Greater accountability and stronger efforts to protect Americans' personal information is needed, which is why I'm proud to join Representative Barber's efforts to bring much-needed oversight to the security of healthcare.gov," Daines stated. "The bipartisan CARE Act will ensure that strong security measures are established by the Department of Homeland Security to protect Americans' personal information from the security gaps in the health exchange website."

The CARE Act seeks to address the serious security risks that exist with the Obamacare health exchange website, healthcare.gov.

During a recent Homeland Security Oversight Committee hearing, Daines, who serves as the Vice Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency, pressed DHS officials for answers about the Obamacare website's abundant security risks and why the website was allowed to launch, given the Administration's knowledge that the risks were "limitless."

Under the CARE Act, the Department of Homeland Security will work with the Department of Health and Human Services in developing risk-based and performance-based standards for security data submitted through healthcare.gov. HHS then is required to implement those standards within 90 days.

The legislation also requires HHS to report to Congress annually on the number and nature of cyber incidents on the healthcare.gov website.

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