Nearly $500 million spent on four failed ObamaCare exchanges

Nevada, for one, is still trying to figure out its future. Oregon has decided to switch to HealthCare.gov. Maryland wants to fix its own exchange, maybe by incorporating what worked in Connecticut. Massachusetts actually wants to do both – build a new portal from scratch while planning a move to the federal exchange as a backup.

Massachusetts’ dual-track approach could require more than $120 million on top of the $170 million it has already has been awarded. That cost is nearly twice as much as if the state were to simply bail on its Connector, but officials seem to be banking in part on the Obama administration’s greater interest in helping the Massachusetts exchange – the once-pioneering model for Obamacare – survive.

Josh Archambault, a senior fellow with the right-leaning Foundation for Government Accountability, argued that the state’s efforts to salvage its exchange are just a face-saving exercise.

“Instead of a quixotic sprint to rebuild the whole site in five months, state officials should instead pivot quickly to utilize the federal exchange, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the process,” he said.