FBI Investigating Kitzhaber's ObamaCare Exchange in Oregon; OR GOV Race Tied

Keep an eye on this race as Kitzhaber’s epic ObamaCare failure continues to take its toll.

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber

(SALEM) - Oregon’s Democrat Governor John Kitzhaber was a cheerleader for ObamaCare from day one.

After hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted on Cover Oregon and warnings about the system’s problems falling on deaf ears, it’s time for Kitzhaber to accept full responsibility for this epic failure.

And now, we learn the FBI is investigating Oregon’s failed implementation of ObamaCare: http://goo.gl/Gp8Qam

In addition, a new poll out today shows the Oregon’s governor’s race tied as Kitzhaber continues to face political fallout over his failed ObamaCare exchange: http://goo.gl/WAQxZc

Keep an eye on this race as Kitzhaber’s epic ObamaCare failure continues to take its toll.

http://goo.gl/Gp8Qam

WSJ: FBI Scrutinizing Health Law Implementation Flaws in Oregon

By DAMIAN PALETTA And DEVLIN BARRETT; May 4, 2014

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into problems that plagued Oregon's implementation of the Affordable Care Act, after the state was forced to scrap its problematic health insurance exchange that was never fully functional, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The FBI has already interviewed some individuals as part of their inquiry, which was first reported by local station KATU and the Portland Oregonian last week.

Cover Oregon, the health exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, has faced major problems for months, and officials last month agreed to scrap their planned state-run exchange that was meant to connect residents with private insurance options. The state will going forward join roughly three dozen other states and use the federal exchange, which itself suffered multiple setbacks in 2013 but has since mostly recovered.

The 14 states that decided to create their own health care exchanges showed mixed results. Maryland's efforts were also beset by problems, but the implementation in Connecticut went much more smoothly. Perhaps nowhere did the state effort stumble as badly as in Oregon, however.

Multiple congressional and government probes into what went wrong in Oregon are already under way, and it hasn't been determined whether the failed effort was a result of incompetence or if taxpayer money was abused and mishandled.

A recent assessment of Oregon's problems conducted on behalf of Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber's office assigned blame both to the state's construction of the program and Oracle,  which was paid to help set up the system.

Representatives of Cover Oregon didn't respond to a request for comment Sunday. A spokeswoman for Oracle said the company wasn't aware of the reported FBI inquiry.

In a statement last month, Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said, "Oracle looks forward to providing any assistance the state needs in moving parts of Oregon's health care exchange to the Federal system if it ultimately decides to do so."

Jon Thompson

Press Secretary

Republican Governors Association (RGA)

jthompson@rga.org

DESK: 202-464-8564

CELL: 910-200-3356

Twitter: @JonThompsonDC