Oregon may drop its glitch-laden Obamacare exchange and rely on the federally run HealthCare.gov website instead, according to a new report.
The Oregonian reports that Alex Petit, the state’s information technology chief, made the recommendation to a 16-member advisory committee on Thursday.
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Cover Oregon, which has withheld payments and dropped its initial web contractor, Oracle, suffered the ignominy of being the only state-run health exchange that could not enroll consumers online from end to end during the open enrollment period from Oct. 1 to March 31.
The state tapped Deloitte to help them fix the website, but rising cost estimates are more than the state can bear, Mr. Petit said, according to the Oregonian.
The Republican National Committee wasted no time in bidding the Obamacare market adieu and assigning political blame for its failure.
“Cover Oregon wasted over $200 million and is the poster child for what’s wrong with ObamaCare’s state exchanges,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said. “While we may be saying goodbye to this failed state healthcare exchange, it will not be lost on anyone that [Gov.] John Kitzhaber and [Democratic Sen.] Jeff Merkley were the individuals responsible for giving Oregonians Cover Oregon.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and the House’s top investigator, said the state should pick up the tab for transitioning to the federal exchange.
“Federal taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill twice for this disastrous project,” he said. “The Administration needs to stop treating taxpayers as a bottomless piggy bank to bail out one botched Obamacare project after another. Poor execution by this Administration is adding billions to the cost of a program that is already too expensive.”
