PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oracle America Inc. has filed a lawsuit accusing former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s campaign consultants of orchestrating the abandonment of the now-defunct Cover Oregon health insurance exchange portal to assist his re-election effort.
The lawsuit restates Oracle’s argument made in a previous lawsuit that Oregon, and not the technology company, was responsible for problems that led to the portal’s failure to launch in 2013. Oregon hired Oracle as the main technology contractor to build Cover Oregon.
In the new lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Court, Oracle alleges that, despite initial failures, the portal could have fully launched in early 2014. It didn’t launch, it says, because consultants with Kitzhaber’s 2014 re-election campaign manipulated the state to shut down the exchange.
The company alleges this was done to protect Kitzhaber, a former emergency room doctor who prided himself on health care issues, from political fallout from Cover Oregon’s initial failures.
The state officially ditched the Cover Oregon portal last spring and switched to the federal portal, HealthCare.Gov.
Kitzhaber resigned earlier this month amid an ethics scandal surrounding him and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes.
Oracle’s lawsuit names campaign consultants Patricia McCaig, Kevin Looper, Scott Nelson, Tim Raphael and Mark Wiener as defendants. They could not be immediately reached for comment.
According to the suit, the advisers failed to disclose that they were paid campaign operatives acting to re-elect the governor, rather than policy advisers.
Oracle is seeking $33 million in damages.
Previously, some politicians have suggested that the decision to abandon the Cover Oregon exchange - funded with $305 million in federal grants - was based on election-year politics.
Also Thursday, Oracle filed tort claim notices with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, notifying it may sue former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his former chief of staff Mike Bonetto over the state’s decision to abandon the Cover Oregon portal.
Oracle previously filed a breach of contract complaint in August, blaming the state for poorly managing Cover Oregon. That was followed by a lawsuit filed by the state against Oracle that accuses the company of shoddy work in building the exchange. Those two cases are ongoing.
And earlier this month, after Oracle announced it would pull the plug on hosting the state’s Medicaid health insurance system, Oregon sued to force Oracle to continue working with the Oregon Health Authority, which runs Medicaid. A judge Wednesday ordered Oracle to continue hosting Medicaid for another year, even after the company’s contract expires this weekend.
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