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Cover Oregon officially calls it quits, state to use federal ObamaCare site
Published April 25, 2014
·FoxNews.com
Cover Oregon on Friday became the first casualty of the state-run ObamaCare exchanges, as officials formally gave up the fight to offer residents a state health care portal. Instead, Oregon, which has been hemorrhaging millions of dollars on a barely functioning website that has failed to sign up a single person, is turning to the federal government for an out.
Cover Oregon’s full board approved the recommendations made Thursday by an advisory committee to fold its troubled portal and use the federal HealthCare.gov for private policies.
The state initially paid $134 million to Oracle Corp. to build its online exchange. Cover Oregon also spent more than $3 million on marketing the site, which included radio, television and YouTube ads, spokeswoman Ariane Holm told FoxNews.com last year.
Cover Oregon received a month-long enrollment deadline extension because of multiple technical glitches in its system.
But fixing the existing system, Cover Oregon officials say, would have meant pouring another $78 million into the growing money pit. Switching to the federal system significantly reduces the cost to around $5 million.
“I guess I am still saying ‘I told you so,’” said former Oregon Rep. Patrick Sheehan on Fox News. “There is a culture of cover up that goes all the way up to the governor’s office.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/25/cover-oregon-officially-calls-it-quits-becomes-first-casualty-obamacare/
Health Care
Cover Oregon officially calls it quits, state to use federal ObamaCare site
Published April 25, 2014
·FoxNews.com
Cover Oregon on Friday became the first casualty of the state-run ObamaCare exchanges, as officials formally gave up the fight to offer residents a state health care portal. Instead, Oregon, which has been hemorrhaging millions of dollars on a barely functioning website that has failed to sign up a single person, is turning to the federal government for an out.
Cover Oregon’s full board approved the recommendations made Thursday by an advisory committee to fold its troubled portal and use the federal HealthCare.gov for private policies.
The state initially paid $134 million to Oracle Corp. to build its online exchange. Cover Oregon also spent more than $3 million on marketing the site, which included radio, television and YouTube ads, spokeswoman Ariane Holm told FoxNews.com last year.
Cover Oregon received a month-long enrollment deadline extension because of multiple technical glitches in its system.
But fixing the existing system, Cover Oregon officials say, would have meant pouring another $78 million into the growing money pit. Switching to the federal system significantly reduces the cost to around $5 million.
“I guess I am still saying ‘I told you so,’” said former Oregon Rep. Patrick Sheehan on Fox News. “There is a culture of cover up that goes all the way up to the governor’s office.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/25/cover-oregon-officially-calls-it-quits-becomes-first-casualty-obamacare/