Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber plans to announce changes to the state's troubled health insurance exchange. It is running far behind other states and has yet to enroll a single person.
Kitzhaber's office would describe the changes only as "additional resources, support, and accountability to boost health care enrollment."
Oregon was an early leader in developing an exchange but was embarrassed when the online enrollment system wasn't ready to launch in October. The exchange, known as Cover Oregon, was forced to use a fallback option. The state has hired or reassigned 400 workers to process applications by hand.
State officials say Cover Oregon's online enrollment should work for individuals by mid-December. That is not in time for people to get coverage that beings on January 1st.