Obamacare: Meet the New Contractor, Same as the Old Contractor

The Obama administration will not renew the contract of CGI Group Inc, the Michelle Obama tied company that oversaw the failed website. Per Chicago Business:

CGI Group Inc., the company that built the federal Obamacare website, will be replaced next month when its contract with the U.S. government expires, a person familiar with the decision said. The Obama administration intends to sign a contract with Accenture Plc to complete unfinished work on HealthCare.gov and run the site, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the decision isn't public. Montreal-based CGI fell as much as 3.8 percent in New York trading.

Things can only get better, right? Well, perhaps not. The Chicago Business article continues:

The Oct. 1 debut of the insurance exchange serving 36 of the 50 U.S. states was plagued by delays, error messages and hang-ups that prevented people from completing applications. Accenture, the second-largest technology-consulting company, led construction of California's better-performing state system.

Through November the California exchanged netted more Obamacare enrollees than the federal exchange, but such numbers are more of a testament to the failure of the federal exchange than the success of the California exchange. The Accenture built California exchange is not without its problems. The Washington Examiner reported last month that seven in ten California doctors wanted to boycott the exchange. The California exchange website--Covered California-- is listing doctors who are not part of the exchange. Also, Covered California was found to be giving out health care consumer information without consent. Per the Daily Caller:

Widespread fears that Affordable Care Act exchanges would fail to guard customer information are already coming true in California, where the state exchange is giving selected insurance agents customer contact information, resulting in unwanted calls and emails to Californians who have checked out the exchange but declined to buy insurance. The Los Angeles Times’ Chad Terhune reports that Covered California, which Obamacare proponents have held up as a rare example of a functioning state health care exchange, provides names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of customers who did not ask to be contacted.

Furthermore, just last week Covered California extend their premium payment deadline per Tony Lee at Breitbart News:

"Covered California" announced the news as news outlets across California started reporting on residents who were unsure if they actually successfully enrolled in Obamacare or still had trouble finishing their applications because of website malfunctions. Many residents reported being "stuck" in the middle of the application process and not being able to get answers about whether their information had been successfully transmitted to insurance companies.

While the Obama administration may tout this contractor change as a means to improve their failing exchange, it is really just more of the same failure.

Crossposted here, here, and here.