State Exchanges Worse than Healthcare.gov on a Cost Basis
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius revealed this week that the cost of the disastrous Healthcare.gov website has ballooned to $677 million through the end of October. Meanwhile, apologists for the disastrous health care law are pointing to the supposedly superior performance of state exchanges to show how well the Obamacare exchange concept can work. But the state exchanges are also a disaster. In fact, federal taxpayers have spent much more on the state exchanges than the federal website. Calfiornia alone cost more than the federal site, but it has fewer people who "selected a plan." As this chart shows, on a cost basis, every single state running its own exchange is performing worse than Healthcare.gov.
| Exchange grants from federal taxpayers | "Number of Individuals Who Have Selected a Marketplace Plan" | Exchange cost per "Individual Who Selected a Marketplace Plan" | |
| Oregon | $305,206,587 | 44 | $6,936,513 |
| Hawaii | $205,342,270 | 444 | $462,483 |
| Massachusetts | $179,036,455 | 1,138 | $157,326 |
| Rhode Island | $134,719,994 | 2,669 | $50,476 |
| Maryland | $171,013,111 | 3,758 | $45,506 |
| Vermont | $208,232,414 | 4,987 | $41,755 |
| Minnesota | $155,020,465 | 4,478 | $34,618 |
| Kentucky | $253,698,351 | 13,145 | $19,300 |
| Colorado | $178,683,411 | 9,980 | $17,904 |
| Nevada | $83,775,083 | 4,834 | $17,330 |
| Connecticut | $184,096,903 | 11,631 | $15,828 |
| Washington | $181,392,299 | 17,770 | $10,208 |
| New York | $429,065,407 | 45,513 | $9,427 |
| California | $910,605,370 | 107,087 | $8,503 |
| Healthcare.gov | $677,000,000 | 137,204 | $4,934 |
| Washington, D.C. | $133,573,928 | N/A | ?? |
State grant data from CMS as aggregated by Americans for Tax Reform. "Selected a plan" data from HHS's so-called enrollment report.
Congratulations, Oregon! Your exchange received $305 million from federal taxpayers and failed to ever even launch a website. Just 44 people signed up via your "add more fax lines" solution in the first two months.