Republicans Investigate State-Based Exchange Sites

Republican lawmakers are launching investigations into state-based health insurance exchanges that have been performing poorly.

Last week, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office proclaiming "no state has had more complications than Oregon" when it comes to the rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchanges. Despite receiving $304 million in federal grants to build Cover Oregon, the site has floundered and has been unable to enroll anyone, the lawmakers wrote. They asked the GAO to review the use of taxpayer dollars that funded Cover Oregon.

Additionally, Reps. Andy Harris (R-Md.) and Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) have written to HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson requesting an investigation into the "the flagrant waste and abuse of taxpayer monies" that funded Maryland's health insurance exchange. According to the letter, the site has "serious IT defects," and state officials are considering scrapping it once the initial open enrollment period ends on March 31. Because of the technical issues, Mr. Harris and Mr. Kingston write the overall cost of Maryland's online insurance marketplace is expected to reach $261 million this year, with all but $47 million of that amount coming from the federal government.

The letters show a shift in focus from the federal health insurance exchange to the state-based marketplaces. Since the federal health insurance exchange website launched last October, various technical issues have plagued HealthCare.gov. However, following repair efforts, the site could support 83,000 concurrent users as of Dec. 23, according to HHS.

Nearly 3.3 million people had enrolled in health insurance exchange plans through the state-based and federal exchanges from Oct. 1, 2013 to Feb. 1. Sign-ups through the state-based exchanges accounted for 1.4 million of those people, while 1.9 million enrolled through the federally facilitated marketplace.

More Articles on the PPACA Exchanges:
Insurers: 20% of PPACA Enrollees Didn't Pay First Premium on Time  
The Long Road to Universal Coverage: Observations on Early PPACA Enrollment Numbers  
Recent PPACA Policy Changes Will Negatively Affect Insurers, Moody's Says