These are astounding numbers. My clients typically pay two-thirds to three-fourths of that amount to actually cover an employee and their dependent medical costs for a year. The below amount is just on promotion and website delivery. It does not include any actual insurance. Now presumably the average cost per enrollee will go down over time as more folks sign up for PPACA plans and less is spent promoting and developing the website over time, but I bet that amount does not substantially change over the next couple of years.
This is from John Kartch at Americans for Tax Reform
In her testimony before Congress today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided an updated dollar amount for the cost of HealthCare.gov: $677 million. In addition to the $677 million spent on the federal Obamacare website, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has shoveled $4.5 billion of taxpayer money to promote Obamacare on the state level.
HHS also released updated “enrollment” figures for Obamacare. According to the agency 364,682 people have “selected a plan” – the equivalent of putting an item in your online shopping cart and leaving it there.
That means the taxpayer cost per “enrollee” is over $14,000.
($4.5 billion + $677 million = $5,177,000,000 ÷ 364,682 = $14,196)
