Kathleen Sebelius Pleads On Hot Mic: 'Don't Do This To Me'

AP

Near the end of grueling testimony during which she was repeatedly grilled on the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was caught on a hot mic whispering to a colleague, "Don't do this to me."

It wasn't immediately clear what she was referring to.

But her aside came during a line of questioning in which Republican members of Congress repeatedly questioned her on whether she would be willing to enroll in the federal health insurance exchanges under Obamacare.

Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) asked her to answer, "yes or no," whether she'd be willing to drop her federal employee health coverage and buy insurance in the exchanges if she could.

"If you can, will you?" he said.

Sebelius claimed that she thought it would be illegal for her to use the exchanges - but that's not actually true.

Then Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) made a unanimous consent request so he could ask a question out of turn. Sebelius turned to a colleague and said, "Don't do this to me." Those words were caught on her microphone.

Waxman then slightly altered the question with a lighter tone.

"If you are able to do what the gentleman just suggested ... and went to buy an individual policy, would you be able to find one that would be able to protect you from cheap shots?" Waxman asked.

"I would gladly join the exchange if I didn't have affordable coverage in my workplace," Sebelius said, smiling, in response to Waxman.

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