Four Failed State Obamacare Exchanges Cost U.S. Taxpayers A Whopping $474 Million

05.12.2014 | News | Jerome Hudson |

When the federal health exchanges launched and crashed last fall through Healthcare.gov, according to numbers published by Politico and furnished by the Kaiser Family Foundation, failing state exchanges in Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada, and Maryland have already spent over $474 million in development cost.

From Kaiser:

Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles — and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher.

Each of the states — Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland — embraced Obamacare, and each underperformed. All have come under scathing criticism and now face months of uncertainty as they rush to rebuild their systems or transition to the federal exchange.

The $474 million spent by these four states includes the cost that officials have publicly detailed to date. It climbs further if states like Minnesota and Hawaii, which have suffered similarly dysfunctional exchanges, are added.

Their totals are just a fraction of the $4.698 billion that the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation calculates the federal government has approved for states since 2011 to help them determine whether to create their own exchanges and to assist in doing so.

What’s more, that nearly half-billion dollar figure reported by Politico is only from four states exchanges. The total amount of money that has so far been allocated for Obamacare state exchanges is nearly $746,029,921, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Oregon has already dumped its $248 million exchange, Cover Oregon, which is being investigated by General Accountability Office

And Massachusetts is abandoning its failed exchange and plans to build a new one, which will temporarily force residents onto the federal exchange–for a staggering $100 million.

Obamacare remains enormously unpopular. The latest CNN poll reveals that just 12% of Americans consider Obamacare a “success.”

Jerome Hudson

Managing Editor

Jerome Hudson has written for numerous national outlets, including The Hill, National Review, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was recognized as one of Florida’s emerging stars, having been included in the list “25 Under 30: Florida’s Rising Young Political Class.” Hudson is a Savannah, Ga. native who currently resides in Florida.

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