Missing Money? Report questions how states spent ObamaCare funds

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The federal government awarded over $5 billion to help states set up ObamaCare exchanges, with the vast majority – $4.6 billion – going to 16 states and Washington, D.C.

 

But, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, much of that money has not been accounted for – and yet not returned, either.

 

So where did those taxpayer dollars go?

 

That’s the billion-dollar question.

 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) required the establishment of health insurance exchanges – known as marketplaces – to help small employers and consumers compare and purchase insurance plans. States opted to either develop their own state-based exchanges or hand authority to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). And between 2010 and 2014, CMS awarded federal grants mostly to states setting up their own marketplaces, to help them get started.

 

About $4.6 billion was given to these 17 recipients, including California, New York, Washington state and Kentucky.

 

But the GAO report found that so far, just $1.4 billion of that has been spent on IT projects, and a total of $3 billion has been “spent or drawn down,” though not all the spending is detailed.

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They got their cut...