Obamacare Website Costs To Date – Over $5 Billion And Still Failing

Over $5 Billion And Counting For Obamacare Websites

 

 

 

 

 

” You thought Healthcare.gov had problems?

  A handful of state-run exchange websites—which cost nearly half a billion dollars to build—still don’t work, nearly seven months after they first went live.

  Largely inoperable state exchange websites in Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Nevada have racked up $474 million federal tax dollars so far, Politico first reported. The costs will continue to climb as states scramble to salvage the flailing websites or transition onto the federal exchange.

  Maryland will spend an additional $40 million to save its website, which has already cost $90 million. Nevada has spent $50 million to date and will decide in the coming weeks how much more it will spend on repair efforts. Massachusetts will pour an additional $121 million into fixing its severely troubled state portal, while also using the federal portal as a back up plan.

“ Taxpayers will have to pay whether their state-based exchange fails or not,” said Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at the conservative Foundation for Government Accountability.

  Meanwhile, Oregon’s website, which already cost $259 million, is so troubled that the state has opted to scrap the site entirely and spend an extra $5 million to use Healthcare.gov instead.

  The Obama administration had intended for states using the federal portal to gradually transition away from HealthCare.gov and onto their own exchanges. However, since so many states had issues with their websites, it appears that the opposite is happening. Minnesota, Nevada and Rhode Island are all considering following Oregon and switching to HealthCare.gov. Not one of the 36 states using the federal exchange intends to set up their own exchanges.”

 

Fiscal Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Obama Is Most Travelled And Expensive President … Ever

Travel Study Update: President Obama Is Most Internationally Traveled President through 5 Years

 

 

 

 

” The President is overseas once again, this time for a rapid-fire trip to Europe and the Middle East, with plans to visit five countries in five days: the Netherlands, Belgium, Vatican City, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. Ahead of the trip, we here at National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) are taking a moment to update our ongoing Presidential travel research to give taxpayers an idea of how often the President is going abroad using taxpayer dollars, and how that compares to past Chief Executive travels.

  When we released our last major update of Presidential travel in June of 2013, Barack Obama was scheduled to make at least two international trips in the final six months of the year. Now that the calendar has turned and his trips are officially in the books, the final count stands at:

• Days abroad: 24
• Countries visited: 13
• Trips taken: 6 “

 

 

Most traveled and most expensive …

 

 

” The most internationally well-traveled President, through five years, is also flying the most expensive-to-operate Air Force One to date.

 

  As reported in the Washington Examiner last month, new records obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request show that it cost about $228,288 per flight hour to operate Air Force One in FY 2013. That figure represents a 27 percent increase from the previously confirmed $179,750 cost that NTUF used in our last study of Presidential Travel.

 

  Taken on its own, the $48,535 jump may not sound all that significant. However, when trips are many thousands of miles and span several time zones and continents, the difference can quickly add up.

 

  For example, the President’s current European trip will likely involve about 29 hours of total travel time, assuming a cruising speed of 575 mph between Washington, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome, and Riyadh, and then back to D.C. Using the previous estimate, the total cost of flying Air Force One between those international cities would be about $5,212,750. Using the new data, the cost comes out to $6,620,352.”

 

 

See more at National Taxpayers Union

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jimmy Kimmel On The High Cost Of Super Bowl Advertising

Advertisers Share Super Bowl Commercial Time

 

Published on Jan 31, 2014

” A 30 second Super Bowl ad costs $4 million. Some companies can’t afford that so they’re teaming up to save some cash while still (sort of) getting their message out.

Jimmy Kimmel Live – Advertisers Share Super Bowl Commercial Time “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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