Failed State Exchanges Have Returned Just $1 Million to Taxpayers

by Mireille Olivo, ATR, September 22, 2015

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) failed to conduct sufficient oversight over state-based Obamacare exchanges, according to a recently released report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In total, CMS distributed $5.5 billion in grants to states to plan and construct exchanges, of which almost $4.6 billion went to 17 states that decided to construct an exchange. According to the GAO report, these states have returned just $1 million despite wasting billions of dollars on barely working, or failed healthcare exchanges.

Of note, Oregon has returned ZERO dollars to federal taxpayers according to GAO, despite the fact the state began shuttering its exchange last year, and has since moved back to the federal system. Oregon is now under investigation for alleged corruption and misuse of taxpayer dollars, and it appears that then-Governor John Kitzhaber put campaign consultants with zero IT or healthcare experience in charge of running the exchange with the sole focus of winning a tough election.

(Hawaii, which is also in the process of closing out its exchange, received $205,342,270 and has also returned $0.)

See how much each state exchange received, and has returned to the federal government HERE.

Source: GAO, http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/672565.pdf