Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday the failure of the Obamacare website to function is symptomatic of a larger problem with the new healthcare system that will cost consumers more money and rob them of their current health plan.
"This thing is failing, but this is failing much faster than they expected," the second-term Republican congressman from President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois told ABC's "This Week" program.
The website will eventually be fixed, Kinzinger said, but the bigger issue is that deductibles will go up by thousands of dollars.
"I'm not celebrating this because this hurts real Americans, but from a political perspective, we came out of a government shutdown where I think undoubtedly Republicans took the brunt of the hit and we had an immensely, amazingly quick change of fortunes," Kinzinger said.
Former Vermont Governor and Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean also appeared on the program, and described the failings of the website as an initial setback that will be forgotten once the program is in place for all Americans.
"I think the greatest fear of the Republican Party is that this works, and I think it will work," Dean said.
But Kinzinger responded that one of the few issues Republicans are united on is that Obamacare is a flawed system.
"We've been saying from the beginning this plan doesn't work," Kinzinger said.
"It's beyond the website, and when the website gets fixed, I think Americans are going to be shocked to see that there is still a problem."
"How are you going to fix the fact that these people were promised more affordable insurance?" Kinzinger said.