Over a hundred million dollars’ worth of tax money – partially my tax money – down the drain: “Maryland officials are set to replace the state’s online health-insurance exchange with technology from Connecticut’s insurance marketplace, according to two people familiar with the decision, an acknowledgment that a system that has cost at least $125.5 million is broken beyond repair.” – This comes two months after Lt. Governor Anthony Brown refused to apologize for the poor behavior of the state exchange, and the O’Malley exchange promised that no replacement was forthcoming. Guess even a Maryland Democratic politician will notice a brick wall after he’s walked into it a couple of times, eh?

And don’t think that the money hemorrhage has stopped, either! No, now the state of Maryland has to set up a new database, make sure that it is in compliance with Maryland state regulations – not Connecticut’s – make sure that it actually works… and, oh yes, reintegrate the existing database records with the new ones. Because there are almost 50,000 people in the old system, and if Maryland isn’t careful all of those people will probably lose their healthcare, at least temporarily. …Oh, Shorter Moe Lane: Database conversions are Hell. On. Earth. Here’s your accordion.

And if you signed up for a policy on the Maryland exchange, you have my sympathies for what’s about to happen to you. Just make sure you blame Lt. Governor Brown for this, since it was his responsibility to make sure that the Maryland exchange worked properly and he wants to be the next Governor of Maryland.

Via

RT @JimPethokoukis: Maryland set to replace troubled health exchange with Connecticut’s system http://t.co/ZfGmnJea5N via @washingtonpost

— Kristina Ribali (@KristinaRibali) March 29, 2014

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Please note that, by and large, states that set up their own exchanges are graphically demonstrating why states that did not set up their own exchanges were smart to do so. The lawsuits are beginning to come into malignant bloom all across the country: the politicians are blaming the vendors, and the vendors are blaming the politicians, and the voters… probably blame both, but they can’t really do anything to the vendors. I am not saying that this means that we will flip any Blue States this cycle, but the relevant state GOP parties are definitely going to get a shot in the arm.