8/16/2019 John Kitzhaber's statement on Cover Oregon
investigation
1/2
The report issued today by the Republican staf o the
HouseCommittee on Oversight and Government Reorm is another
exampleo the kind o partisan politics that has let so many
Americansdisillusioned and distrustul o ashington !"C" #t is $orth
noting thatthis is an uno%cial report prepared solely by the
Republican staf" #t is
not an o%cial report rom the Committee because it re&ects no
inputrom the !emocratic members $ho $ere orced to issue their
o$nseparate report" '(ee !emocratic (taf report at) *#+,
#t is also $orth noting that Committee Chairman -ason Chafet./
R01tah/ chose notdepose or intervie$ anyone rom Oracle beore
directing his staf toprepare this uno%cial report" *et2s call this
or $hat it is) theRepublican staf doing the bidding o a
multinational corporation $hichailed to deliver promised technology
or Oregon2s health insuranceexchange" The simple truth is that $e
made the decision to move a$ay
rom Oracle2s $ebsite to the ederal technology because it $as
themost cost0efective and least risky $ay to ensure a ully
unctioning$ebsite by the second enrollment period $hich began in
+ovember3456" And that is 7ust $hat $e did"
The decision to move a$ay rom Oracle $as based
onrecommendations rom a technology committee appointed to
provideguidance to the Cover Oregon board"" This committee
included thestate8s chie inormation o%cer Alex 9ettit/ !r" George
:ro$n/ amember o the Cover Oregon :oard and C;O o *egacy Health<
as $ellas technology experts rom 9rovidence Health and (ervices/
=oda
Health/ 9aci>c(ource Health 9lans and others"
?inally/ $e should remember that/ because o the intense
mediacoverage o the problems surrounding the $ebsite/ many
Oregonians$ere una$are that $e had a process to continue enrolling
people incoverage" # have al$ays been orthcoming $ith the act that
# used allthe resources at my disposal@including some campaign
resources@todevelop a communication strategy encouraging Oregonians
tocontinue to seek enrollment" # $ould do it again under
similarcircumstances" As a result/ $e ended up enrolling a total o
64/444Oregonians in 3456 @ B34/444 o them through the process $e
set up
to continue to get our citi.ens health insurance coverage in
spite o theproblems $ith the $ebsite"
To say that B44 million $as D$astedE intentionally ignores
the actthat today ninety0>ve percent o Oregonians no$ have
healthinsurance coverage" The cost that should not have been
incurred/ho$ever/ $as the extra cost o keeping the enrollment
process going/not$ithstanding the ailed Oracle technology" #t is my
hope that those
