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Oregon Health Exchange Website Yet to Complete One Enrollment

Considering switching to federal exchange next year

January 14, 2014

Oregon will consider a switch to the federal health care exchange next year amid ongoing problems with its online enrollment program, Politico Pro reports.

The state’s exchange, Cover Oregon, still cannot process an entire enrollment online — a problem that is not expected to be repaired until after the 2014 enrollment period ends in March.

That has state officials weighing several options including scrapping its own enrollment system and moving to HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment portal which is working better now after its own disastrous start. Switching to the federal site could be considered a significant political defeat for the state and Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who strongly embraced the president’s health care law and is seeking reelection this year.

"As much as we don’t want to walk away from a big IT project, we have to consider it," Kitzhaber health policy adviser Sean Kolmer told Politico. "It’s all about enrollment."

Oregon is now analyzing what went wrong with the website, with many blaming the main contractor of the site.

The state has been able to enroll some people through a process that requires some online work and some paperwork.

Maryland is also considering switching to the federal exchange, which currently serves 36 states, according to Politico Pro.