NEWSMAX: …Directors for the exchange, Cover Oregon, are scheduled to meet Friday to consider a recommendation that the state join the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov. Cover Oregon’s website never recovered from its technology woes, forcing tens of thousands of Oregon residents to apply for health plans using paper applications.
Once viewed as a trailblazer for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, Oregon was one of the first states awarded federal grants to build an insurance exchange. Cover Oregon’s failure has spurred blame-trading between the state government and the project’s main contractor, Oracle, the biggest maker of database software, and imperils the re-election of Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat.
“At some point you just have to say it’s time to swallow the pill and figure out: what do we do to move on and improve the situation,” Dawn Bonder, the chief executive officer of Health Republic Insurance, a startup selling plans on Cover Oregon, said in a phone interview. “Looking at all the options and the available funds and the timeline, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of paths to go down at this point in time. It’s sad.”… (more)
