(Democrat Kay) Hagan hosted a conference call for reporters Tuesday morning to discuss the problems with the health-care law’s rollout, and the Q&A session was so painful that the senator should qualify for trauma coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

◼ A reversal of fortune for Democrats after Obamacare - Dana Milbank/Washington Post

A reporter from the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record asked why Hagan, like President Obama, had told people that if they liked their health plans they’d be able to keep their health plans.

There was a long pause before Hagan responded, then a deep intake of breath. “You know, Doug,” she responded, “the, um” — here she exhaled and paused again — “the way these, the — the regulations and the law, uh” — pause — “came forward recently, I think people were surprised that the, uh, the — the actual original plans would be, um, would be canceled.”

Another North Carolina reporter asked Hagan what she is telling constituents whose premiums have doubled or whose plans have been canceled.

Deep inhalation. “Well, a lot of people, I, I am encouraging everybody to go on the site, uh, uh, I — look through it, find out what the benefits are,” she began. She also said constituents could call her office, “and we will certainly, uh, do what we can to help those individuals and put them in contact, uh, with the right — with the right person, and, and, and help them.”

News reports about the law in Kagan’s home state have been brutal: businesses cutting workers’ hours, 160,000 people receiving cancellation notices, hardly anybody signing up for the health-care exchange....

Should Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius keep her job? “You know,” Hagan replied, “I think what we need to do is we need to look at the, at the — what these contracts said, what these contracts, uh, will actually show and that’s why I think getting the general, uh, um, the GAO to do this as well as the, uh, the HHS, so we can see these contracts and, you know, I think w — w — you know, once I’ve rec — once I’m able to look at this accountability, um, then I, you know, uh, then I’ll be able to, uh, make a better determination.”

Maybe somebody should call a doctor.