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I wish I could have been there when a Girl Scout who invented a page turning machine built out of Lego’s asked Obama what he had ever invented, or been involved in the prototyping of he stammered the following (non) answer: “Healthcare”. Ummmhmmm. Forgive me, I am biased on this topic, being one of the millions of taxpaying Oregonians who watched our investment circle the drain as Oracle and former Governor John Kitzhaber played the blame game as Oregon shut down the cruel joke known as Cover Oregon and migrated to the equally laughable HealthCare.gov which houses the Federal Exchange.
On Thursday, Fox News broke the story of the Hawaii state healthcare exchange, known as the Hawaii Connector, as being on “life support”. It seems that Hawaii only wasted some $205 million of its taxpayers money on a site that has devolved into a mess.
“The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has already restricted grant funds to the Hawaii Health Connector, after telling officials in March it was out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act because of fiscal instability and ongoing IT issues. “
In fact, 17 exchanges have combusted across the nation so far. Massachusetts‘s exchange just got subpoenaed by the Feds and was described by a whistleblower as a “technological disaster”.
“Boston’s Pioneer Institute senior fellow in health care, Josh Archambault, released a report on Monday detailing the “complete incompetence” of the state’s health bureaucrats from Day One. But taxpayers would be lucky if incompetence were the only sin.
After firing the tech boneheads of CGI, the same company behind the federal Healthcare.gov meltdown, Massachusetts officials “appear to have lied to the federal government to cover up mistakes” made by both the state and the IT company.”
Vermont’s exchange is in dire circumstances as well . You remember Vermont, home to maple syrup and Socialist Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders. They wanted Obamacare to work so desperately, but alas even they found out the hard way the road to single payer never does run smooth.
“Vermont, the tiny state with giant ambitions to use Obamacare as a stepping stone to single-payer, government-run health care is still facing enormous problems dealing with its tiny population. They are using CGI, the same vendor that failed on the federal healthcare.gov, and have given them a deadline of July 2 to get the site working. It is unclear what Vermont will do if they fail to deliver by that date.”
Minnesota’s exchange has been a certifiable mess, with DeLoitte being given a $4.5 million contract to “save it”.
“The agency overseeing the state’s health insurance exchange said Wednesday that it has hired Deloitte Consulting for a nine-month, $4.95 million contract to help fix short-term problems and establish a path for long-term sustainability.
The contract still must be approved by the federal government, but MNsure interim CEO Scott Leitz said he expects approval to come within two weeks.
Deloitte was a top contender in 2012 for the contract to build the online health exchange, whose rollout was marred by ongoing technical problems. It has built successful state-based insurance exchanges in Connecticut, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Washington.
The New York-based company also recently signed a contract with Nevada, plus a deal worth a reported $40 million to $50 million with Maryland, whose troubled insurance exchange was built using the same suite of original vendors as Minnesota.
Deloitte’s Kevin Kelly told the MNsure board of directors Wednesday that the firm will base its work in Minnesota on success it has had in other states.”
Hawaii just joined the line of Obamacare exchanges swirling around the technological drain, it seems that not even the exclusive Punahou School education Obama received in the islands could have predicted this sad end to the Aloha State’s health care exchange.
All told, according to a piece by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, failed state exchanges have cost the American taxpayer $1.2 billion so far. Follow me folks, the Mai Tai bar is this way.
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