The Patriot Post® · Actual Cost of Federal Health Exchange Balloons

Remember ObamaCare? It has largely evaded the headlines in recent months, but its effects are as pertinent as ever. Recall that HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell told a Senate committee in May that Healthcare.gov was nearing a cost of $1 billion. Four months later, a new analysis by Bloomberg Government reveals that its true cost is more like $2.14 billion. Why the gap? Because “Burwell’s estimates did not include numerous costs related to the project,” writes Cato Institue’s Nicole Kaeding, like “processing paper applications, which are used as a backup. That contract cost $300 million.” Nor did it include “spending at the IRS and other agencies related to ACA requirements,” another $387 million. “Bloomberg also includes $400 million in costs that were excluded by HHS using creative accounting.” In Burwell’s defense, $255 million of this discrepancy can be attributed to an additional six months tallied by Bloomberg’s study. Nevertheless, is it possible the same administration that passed ObamaCare with deception is playing games with numbers? We’re shocked. Now for the worst part: “Bloomberg says the $2.14 billion for HealthCare.gov administration is only a small part of the full $73 billion costs of Obamacare since its passage in 2010,” Kaeding notes. To borrow from Mr. Obama, “The Affordable Care Act was not as, uh, affordable as we expected.” More…