Kitzhaber’s epic failure: Cover Oregon

by NW Spotlight

Oregon’s disastrous rollout of Obamacare continues to make national news.

Politico ran a story yesterday with the headline: Oregon’s Obamacare sign-up is an ‘epic failure.’ The article begins “Oregon once led the country in implementing Obamacare. Now it’s just about dead last. Not one person has yet enrolled in the Cover Oregon insurance exchange — a major embarrassment to state policymakers who early on had wholeheartedly embraced the Affordable Care Act even as other states tried their best to hinder it.”

Governor Kitzhaber, seen by some as one of the great hopes for making Obamacare work, is experiencing an epic failure of its rollout in Oregon – under his watch and at the hands of the people he appointed.

Politico goes on to describe Kitzhaber’s efforts to get things back on track.

“The state has been throwing significant resources into its backup plan, assigning hundreds of workers to deal with the paper applications, yet making little headway. Nearly 30,000 individuals and families have applied via paper, but the state hasn’t been able to finish processing even one submission.”

The failure is widespread – state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) expressed frustration after trying to enroll his mother-in-law, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease: “Everybody’s grousing, including me, because I can’t get the damn fax machine to answer.”