When ‘Cover Oregon’ collapsed, Oregonians had to enroll in the federal health exchange.
A lawsuit over the $300 million debacle is continuing.
But now, the feds are proposing new fees that would essentially double the cost for Oregon insurance carriers — costs which would be passed on to consumers.
Patrick Allen, director of Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services, says his agency is asking for proposals to set up another exchange. “Now that we’re three years into the Affordable Care Act, there’s a relatively mature vendor market out there of products that are being run by states today that we know work. That can be used in ways that are more or less unchanged by Oregon," he said.
"So we're really talking about buying a known product, or using a service. Not at all having someone come and write code for us and develop a website from scratch."
Any proposal would have to go to state lawmakers.