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Three weeks ago you read here that “Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down.”
Soon is right now:
The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a statement. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) informed the exchange last week that federal funds were no longer available to support long-term operations.
“The state is working with the Connector and CMS to determine what functions can be transitioned to state oversight to ensure compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the next Open Enrollment in November 2015,” Ige said.
Ige said that Hawaii will maintain a Supported State-based Marketplace in which the state would provide local customer support.
Grant funds had been restricted in March after the exchange told officials it was not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, due to fiscal instability and tech issues.
I have a few questions.
Why exactly did Hawaii Health Connector receive such high praise? Was it a nice-looking website? Did it — unlike Healthcare.gov to this day — have a fully functioning backend? Probably not, or the story wouldn’t have cited “tech issues” as one of the program’s two major failings. Whatever the case, HHC seems to have received all of this high praise before anyone knew if it was actually solvent, which seems to me to be the one thing we should know about an insurance program before praising the damn thing.
What happens to Health Connector’s customers? I realize there aren’t many of them, certainly not enough to keep the program afloat. But it does seem likely that these people are sicker than the norm, and thus really in need of insurance. Where do they go when their current policies expire?
What is a “Supported State-based Marketplace.” If it’s just another name for an exchange, how can Hawaii get it up and running by November when they had years to set up the failed Health Connector? How high will prices have to be to bring insurers back to the table? Is it even legal under ♡bamaCare!!!?
The people of Hawaii are already out $200,000,000. How much more will they have to pay? Who is responsible for such waste, and will they be facing any sort of legal liabilities?
Does Hillary Clinton still believe, as she claims in the June, 2014 video above, that Democrats should run “toward” ♡bamaCare!!!?
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