The company behind Oregon’s failed Obamacare exchange sued the state on Friday for breach of contract and also accused state officials of “constant public slander” in their criticism of the website’s performance.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Oracle, a software developer based out of California, filed the lawsuit in U.S. district court. Oregon decided earlier this year to scrap its exchange and switch to the federal HealthCare.gov after a disastrous performance during Obamacare’s first open enrollment period, during which the site had a pitiful 44 sign-ups in its first two months and consumers eventually defaulted to paper applications.
“While flogging Oracle publicly, Cover Oregon continued privately to ask for Oracle’s help. (Indeed it continues to this day to seek Oracle’s technical help with the project),” Oracle wrote in the lawsuit. “Oracle gave that help for many months, in spite of the public excoriation, because it was committed to helping Cover Oregon complete the project and because Cover Oregon repeatedly promised to pay Oracle for its services.”
“In the end, though, Cover Oregon reneged on its promises, thus prompting this lawsuit.”
Oracle received $130 million for its work on Oregon’s exchange, according to the Times. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) has said he plans to take legal action of his own over the site’s poor performance.
Oracle said in the complaint that Kitzhaber “set out to systematically to vilify the company in the media,” but that the company continued to do work for the state until the contract was terminated.
“Oracle, believing that the best solution for Oregonians was to focus on completing the project, continued to work, quietly and without public retort, in spite of the constant public slander,” the company wrote.
