WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders this week sent letters to 17 state health exchanges as the committee continues its investigation of the federal government’s oversight of state health exchanges established under Obamacare. The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee recently held a hearing to review how the federal government spent more than 5 billion taxpayer dollars on failed or failing exchanges.
Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA) write, “The committee’s hearing shed some light on how states have used federal grant dollars to establish their state exchanges, and how CMS has approved and overseen the use of these funds. The hearing, however, did not answer all the committee’s questions nor fully assuaged its concerns that tax dollars have been, and are being, spent inappropriately. Therefore, the committee is writing to seek additional information concerning the use of federal funds in the establishment and maintenance of the health exchange in your state."
Upton, Murphy, and Pitts are seeking details regarding how the states interact with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and a more detailed accounting of how taxpayer dollars were allocated and spent. The leaders sent letters to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
The committee has been investigating the administration’s implementation of the president’s health care law for years, shining a light on and in some instances proposing legislative solutions to the law’s many broken promises.
Read the complete letters online HERE.
