Oregon Still on the Hook for Obamacare Fraud and Abuse

It was gut-wrenching — an example of crony capitalism so egregious it could easily be turned into a movie. Governor Dr. John Kitzhaber promised Oregon that he could make something bigger and better than the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchange. But with the help of his self-proclaimed “Princess of Darkness,” he instead enriched government employees at the expense of everyone else, destroying the Oregon healthcare market and losing hundreds of millions worth of taxpayer dollars in the process.

Kitzhaber is far from a man of his word, but he did keep one promise — he took Oregon’s health care exchange in a much different direction than the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, he benignly chose to drive it backwards instead of forwards.

Kitzhaber’s Cover Oregon healthcare exchange plan was not built to serve the people of Oregon — it was a mere political stunt from the very beginning. After using $300 million worth of taxpayer dollars to build and  publicize the new exchange to boost his public profile, Kitzhaber immediately killed the project when it became politically inconvenient.  

Why? Because the number one rule of politics is to stomp out challenges instead of overcoming them. Kitzhaber was warned by Cover Oregon contractors that they needed more time to debug the system, but in the heat of a competitive re-election campaign, Kitzhaber couldn’t risk putting a short-term problem on his resume. His political director, “Princess of Darkness” Patricia McCaig, terminated the project and instead roll Oregon onto the federal healthcare exchange program.

Millions worth of taxpayer dollars were lost and not a single Oregon resident was able to receive healthcare, but the most important objective was achieved — Kitzhaber won his re-election campaign and maintained his power.

Things did not get any better for Oregon after joining the federal Affordable Care Act exchange. Never one to disappoint his fellow government employees, Kitzhaber allowed the coordinated care organizations under the plan to spend money lavishly and carelessly. In fact, he didn’t even necessitate that the health care organizations meet the same spending standards that private insurance companies are required meet.

A federal audit unveiled that nearly 70 percent of the coordinated care organizations in Oregon spent more than the 15 percent ceiling on administration costs. This lead to at least $10 million in wasted taxpayer dollars in 2014.

Kitzhaber, the savvy political communicator who promised a change from the status quo, ended up leading a state that received an F grade in the 2015 State Integrity Investigation. Amid much public scrutiny, he was forced to resign from his post, all while still insisting that he is “confident that [he had] not broken any laws nor taken any actions that were dishonest or dishonorable in their intent or outcome.”

Since his resignation, Kitzhaber has been under federal investigation on a wide array of other potential crimes, including doling out large government contracts to his fiancee. Whether or not Kitzhaber will be punished for the Oregon healthcare scandal is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for certain — the federal and state taxpayers already have.