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Rumor Check: Obamacare Website Might Be Glitchy, But It Didn't Cost $634 Million
A message is seen on the computer indicating that there are too many visitors on the Affordable Care Act site to continue, as navigator Nini Hadwen helps people shop for health insurance during a navigation session put on by the Epilepsy Foundation Florida to help people sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act on October 8, 2013 in Miami, Florida. The United States government continues to be partially shut down as Republicans hold out hope to cut funding for the Affordable Care Act. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Rumor Check: Obamacare Website Might Be Glitchy, But It Didn't Cost $634 Million

While the federal website to signup for Obamacare was riddled with errors and had a rocky rollout, it didn't cost $634 million to build.

The eye-popping supposed pricetag gained traction Thursday after technology website Digital Trends compared it to the estimate released by the government contractor, which was $541 million less.

CGI Federal announced in 2011 that it had been awarded a $93.7 million contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to build the federal health insurance exchange, healthcare.gov, which formally launched on Oct. 1, 2013.

Navigators Help Floridians Sign Up For New Health Care Marketplace A message is seen on the computer indicating that there are too many visitors on the Affordable Care Act site to continue, as navigator Nini Hadwen helps people shop for health insurance during a navigation session put on by the Epilepsy Foundation Florida to help people sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act on October 8, 2013 in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

Digital Trends called the $93.7 million estimate a "chunk of change, but nothing near where it apparently ended up."

But an official at CGI told TheBlaze those saying the federal heath insurance exchange cost $634 million are incorrect. The official said this figure includes all of the company's contracts for a Health and Human Services Department program over the last seven years, covering 114 transactions. The cost of building healthcare.gov was issued under this contract.

[sharequote align="center"]Turns out healthcare.gov didn't cost $634 million to build.[/sharequote]

The official noted CGI was awarded the contract to build the website through a competitive procurement process.

Even though the site didn't cost upwards of $600 million to build, many are still questioning why -- with the $93.7 million tag -- it still wasn't up to snuff.

Health Overhaul Poll This photo provided by HHS shows the main landing web page for HealthCare.gov. The government's new health insurance marketplaces are drawing lots of rotten tomatoes in early reviews. But people are at least checking the things out. According to an AP-GfK poll, 7 percent of Americans report that somebody in their household has tried to sign up for insurance through the health care exchanges. While that s a small percentage, it could represent more than 20 million people. (AP/HHS)

An AP-GfK poll released Tuesday found that 7 percent of Americans had somebody in their household try to sign up, which could represent about 20 million people. Just one in 10 people who tried to sign up succeeded in purchasing health insurance. Of those who signed up, about 75 percent said they experienced problems with the process, and 40 percent of Americans felt the launch hasn't gone well.

Overall, the the AP-GfK poll, conducted Oct. 3 through Oct. 7, found 28 percent of Americans support the overall framework of the Affordable Care Act, 38 percent are opposed and 32 percent don't have an opinion either way. Asked specifically whether the government should be able to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a fine, only about three in 10 Americans agreed, with 68 percent opposed.

Others blasted the federal site's design, which requires people to sign up with an account before they go "window shopping" for healthcare options, as opposed to anonymous shopping.

"I'm reluctant to give information so it can be tracked when I'm simply looking for information," Maureen Bardusk of Galena, Ill., said, according to the Associated Press.

"I don't want to be part of a marketing scheme," she added. "I assume they set it up that way so they could see who's coming in, how many times they come in and what they buy after they get there...but that isn't really customer-oriented."

Neither the White House nor the Office of Budget and Management immediately returned requests for comment from TheBlaze about the cost of the website and fixing the system's glitches.

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