Another ObamaCare Cost: Feds Gave $4.4B to States for Exchange Websites
Photo Credit: Fox News By Fox News.
The Obama administration gave states roughly $4.4 billion in taxpayer dollars to set up their own ObamaCare websites, according to a new analysis, in the latest revelation about the faucet of federal spending switched on by the 2010 passage of the health care law.
Some of the states even took federal money, then decided to let the federal site handle enrollment.
While the steep cost of HealthCare.gov — which is the federally run site — has come under fire, the money granted to the states has so far generated little attention. And while the 14 state-run sites have operated more smoothly than the problem-plagued federal site and have accounted for the lion’s share of signups, the federal money spent on tech support, advertising and other startup costs have hardly yielded the level of customer enthusiasm and participation the administration projected.
Just 106,000 Americans have enrolled since the Oct. 1 rollout — far short of the 500,000 the administration hoped would sign up in the first month. The state-run sites handled 75 percent of the transactions.
The study on state-site spending by the conservative-leaning Americans for Tax Reform group shows the money was distributed through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services grants and argues “federal taxpayer funds were shoveled to states for a variety of vague purposes.”
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Photo Credit: ReutersObamacare: So, what could go wrong next?
By David Nather.
Busted website, canceled policies, lousy early enrollment numbers. And that could be just the warmup.
Because the lesson of the last six weeks is that when it comes to the Obamacare rollout, if it can go wrong, it probably will.
The stumble-filled debut of President Barack Obama’s health care law is drawing new attention to the other risks that have been on the radar screen of health care wonks for months. Think health insurance plans sinking under the weight of sick customers, newly insured people being stunned that they still have to spend on health care, and possibly another wave of canceled policies — right before the 2014 elections.
They’re mostly worst-case scenarios, and an Obamacare recovery in the next few months could still prevent some of the biggest ones from ever happening. But health care experts are taking all of them a lot more seriously now — because at this point, why wouldn’t they?
A complete list of possibilities could be overwhelming, but here are the main ones to watch…
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