Massachusetts Abandons Signature Health Exchange

Just a couple of weeks after it was reported that Oregon was abandoning its problem-riddled state exchange, earlier this week, Massachusetts announced it is following suit. The overhaul the MA state exchange had to go through to make it compatible with Obamacare has raised many technological problems with the system.
Massachusetts recently announced that it is hiring a company that will build a new state exchange, due to go live for the next enrollment period that begins on November 15th. Because of the uncertainty that this state exchange overhaul will be completed by the time the enrollment period begins, MA will simultaneously be shifting citizens on to the federal exchange.
This is a significant blow to state exchanges since MA’s exchange, which started in 2006, became the model for state exchanges nation-wide. Thousands of MA residents were placed on temporary Medicaid with the anticipation that they would be transitioned on to the state exchange, if they qualified. However, due to exchange failures, people have been unable to make the transition off temporary Medicaid, which was set to phase out by January and has now been extended through June, has ended up costing the state millions of dollars per month.
How much has this technological debacle cost Massachusetts taxpayers? The state had a $69 million contract with CGI, the same company that was a major developer of the beleaguered federal insurance website and the same company that had an $84 million contract to oversee the building of the Vermont exchange. The $69 million price tag does not include the cost of fixes and workarounds associated with the poor performance.
This further shows NH made the right decision of not implementing its own state exchange