ObamaCare exchanges cost $4.6 Billion - at least $474 Million of which was completely wasted

At one point, state exchanges were all Democrats wanted to talk about. "Sure," they'd say. "The federal website is a mess, but the state exchanges are doing great work!" Ignoring all polling to the contrary, they'd tell you that state exchanges were evidence that the public loved Obama's boondoggle. Their "overwhelming, irrefutable, success" was trotted out as proof of ObamaCare's grand efficacy.

These days, they're not bragging so much. More and more states are dumping their failed exchanges and the price tag attached to the implosions represents a spectacular amount of wasted taxpayer dollars. So, how bad is it? It's so bad that

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Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state ObamaCare exchanges that are now in shambles -- and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher. Each of the states -- Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland -- embraced ObamaCare, and each underperformed. All have come under scathing criticism and now face months of uncertainty as they rush to rebuild their systems or transition to the federal exchange. The $474 million spent by these four states includes the cost that officials have publicly detailed to date. It climbs further if states like Minnesota and Hawaii, which have suffered similarly dysfunctional exchanges, are added. Their totals are just a fraction of the $4.698 billion that the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation calculates the federal government has approved for states since 2011 to help them determine whether to create their own exchanges and to assist in doing so.

Regarding the inclusion of failing exchanges in Hawaii and Minnesota, the phrase "climbs further" is a bit of an understatement. "Skyrockets" is closer to accurate. In reality, if you factor those two states in, the feds will have burned $835 million on a measly six marketplaces. But it was worth it, right? Those six exchanges must have signed up an awful lot of people! ...Well, that depends on what you mean by "awful." According to Forbes, they collectively boast around 270,000 "enrollees." If you do the math, that means they spent just over $3,000 per person. Oh, and that $3,000 figure is the good news. Even if you factor in the exchanges that are working, the law has still been a tremendous waste of money.

Nationally, federal taxpayers have spent $4,633 per enrollee for each of the 8+ million who have signed up for Exchange coverage through April 19. But this ranges from a low of $3,038 in Tennessee to a high of $24,947 in Hawaii. ...these costs were nearly $1,000 lower per enrollee in Republican-controlled states compared to those where the governor and legislature were controlled by Democrats.

If you think that's terrible, you're right. Even assuming that the 8 million enrollment number is correct (and we're all aware that it probably isn't) you have to remember that 74% of those "new signups" were people who were already insured but lost their policies due to ObamaCare non-compliance. In other words, the government spent thousands of your tax dollars, per person, in an effort to force people who already had insurance to buy insurance again. ...Only now they get to enjoy policies which generally carry higher premiums and deductibles.