Sophie Novack

Oregon is set to become the first state to switch over to the federal Obamacare exchange.

The state exchange, Cover Oregon, has been such a failure that moving to the once broken HealthCare.gov seems preferable to trying to salvage its system.

An advisory panel just recommended the decision. An exchange official said that repairing the existing system would cost about $78 million and take a long time to implement. He estimated that switching to HealthCare.gov would cost between $4 million and $6 million, according to the Associated Press.

The full board that oversees the state exchange will vote on the decision, but officials say state and federal representatives have already agreed that shifting the system to the federal marketplace in 2015 is the best approach, The Washington Post reports, Oregon being the most extreme example.

Cover Oregon has yet to sign up a single resident through the website since the exchange launched at the beginning of October. The state has instead relied on paper applications and in-person assistors. About 64,000 residents have enrolled in private coverage through the exchange thus far.