The data center operated by Verizon's Terremark experienced a connectivity issue that caused it to shut down,affecting the federal government's already problem-plaguedonline marketplace Healthcare.gov and similar sites operated by14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the USDepartment of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Administration and company officials could not say how longit would take to fix the connectivity problem.
Separate technical problems that have stalled enrollment onHealthcare.gov since its launch on Oct. 1 are at the heart of anew Republican effort to discredit the healthcare law, alsoknown as Obamacare, largely through congressional investigationsto determine what went wrong in building the costly andcomplicated implementation system.