US Government Will Run Health Insurance Exchanges In Half Of The 50 States: US Turns To Canadian Company, CGI Group, To Provide IT Services

The US government, contrary to to its initial expectations of 50 state run health insurance exchanges, is finding that it will have to operate the ObamaCare mandated health insurance exchanges in about 25 states.

The US has decided to contract with a Canadian IT consulting company, CGI Group, whose stock shares are primarily traded and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, for information technology services for 5 years and almost a $100 million.

From The New York Times, "U.S. Officials Brace for Huge Task of Operating Health Exchanges" by Robert Pear:

When Congress passed legislation to expand coverage two years ago, Mr. Obama and lawmakers assumed that every state would set up its own exchange, a place where people could shop for insurance and get subsidies to help defray the cost.***“We realize that not all states will be ready to establish these exchanges by 2014, so we are setting up a federally facilitated exchange in those states,” said Michael Hash, the top federal insurance regulator. “We are on track to go live in October 2013, which is the beginning of the first open season for the individual and small group markets.”***Federal and state officials and health policy experts expect that the federal government will run the exchanges in about half of the 50 states — a huge undertaking, given the diversity of local insurance markets.***Federal officials have turned to the American subsidiary of a Canadian company, the CGI Group, to provide information technology services to the federal exchanges under a contract that could be worth $93.7 million over five years.