The Cover Oregon debacle is the biggest healthcare scandal you’ve never heard about. It is also perhaps the biggest government IT failure in U.S. history.

◼ “Bottom Line: We Are On Track To Launch” ranks right up there with “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” as one of the biggest falsehoods in the annals of Obamacare. - Mark Hyman/American Spectator

More than $200 million was spent on building the Cover Oregon website and healthcare exchange. No one appears to confidently know the exact figure since generally accepted business practices were not rigorously followed.

The lead vendor for the project was software giant Oracle, although the process to select a vendor wasn’t very competitive. By the time the entire procurement process was over, Oracle was the only company in consideration. Other potential vendors dropped out of the bidding when the scope of the project became known.

Relatively little money spent on Cover Oregon actually came from the state. Most of the funds came from federal grants (here, here) totaling $305 million. This is why the Government Accountability Office announced in early March 2014 that it was launching an investigation to determine where and how federal money was spent....

Cover Oregon authorities decided to build a behemoth website that would allow virtually any Oregonian to use it to register for just about any welfare and public assistance benefit including Medicaid eligibility, payments, and enrollment; food stamps; temporary assistance for needy families; and the supplemental nutritional assistance program. The effort, which was nicknamed “No Wrong Door,” elevated a nearly impossible goal to a clearly impossible one in the time allotted.

As detailed in the monthly quality assurance reports, every bit of bad news was compounded by even more bad news. Most, if not all, of it was generated by poor decision-making. For example, Oregon Health Authority chief information officer Carolyn Lawson, the official in charge of the technical aspects of the website build-out, decided to eliminate the position of system integrator before one was even hired. Think of this decision as having several subcontractors erect an office building without using a general contractor armed with blueprints.

Some observers raised eyebrows over what they considered an unusually cozy relationship between Lawson and vendor Oracle. One legislator warned Kitzhaber in a 2012 email he believed Lawson “presented fraudulent testimony in a legislative hearing to further her self interest… of a consulting job with Oracle.” Lawson resigned for “personal reasons” in mid-December 2013.

Making matters worse was that the entire effort was plagued by political infighting, conflicting priorities, and atrocious business practices. One such example was the “[c]omingling of individual and business [healthcare] accounts.”

◼ Obamacare Real Enrollment: Just 1.7% of Uninsured Covered - Wynton Hall/Breitbart´s Big Government

Obamacare, the plan purportedly created to provide health coverage for the uninsured, has enrolled just 1.7% of America´s 48.6 million uninsured. News of the disastrous numbers comes as nervous Democrats and President Barack Obama, ahead of the November midterm elections, did their best on Monday´s enrollment deadline to put a positive spin on the deeply unpopular Obamacare program. (Snip) The White House now claims an Obamacare enrollment figure of six million people. However, according to The New York Times, at least 20% of those never paid their premiums to activate coverage, leaving them uninsured.

Even conceding the White House its alleged six million enrollment figure (which, again, includes duplicates and incomplete applications), that would mean that just 810,000 of paying Obamacare customers were previously uninsured, a figure that represents 1.7% of America's 48.6 million uninsured people.

Indeed, most of those the White House counts as Obamacare enrollees are among the five million who had their health insurance plans canceled due to Obamacare.

Obamacare has taken a severe toll on President Obama's approval rating. The latest Associated Press poll reveals that his disapproval rating has now hit an all-time high of 59%. As one Democratic member of Congress told The New York Times, Obama is "poisonous" to Democrats running in the November 4th midterm elections.

◼ Study: Obama and the Democrats Disrupted the Whole Healthcare Industry for Just Two Million Uninsured - Bryan Preston/PJ Media

◼ And it´s down – AGAIN! Obamacare website crashes TWICE on enrollment deadline day - David Martosko.Daily Mail [UK]

◼ 7 Million Sign Up for Obamacare—APRIL FOOLS!!! - Larry Johnson/NoQuarter

Hysterical. What a hoot. Obama and team, in the “fool” spirit of 1 April, got their gag game on and went out before cameras insisting that a gazillion people had signed up for the ironically named, Affordable Care Act. Got to show some love to Barack Obama and company for their shrewd since of humor. For the past six months nobody on the White House staff or at Health and Human Services knew anything about the number of folks who had actually signed up. But now, on April first, they suddenly have perfect info? They still can’t tell you who has paid and how many of those signing up are actually replacing plans they were forced to drop because of Obamacare, but who cares? All that matters is that they tell the joke with a straight face.

PUHLEAZE!!