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Obamacare will be responsible for $273.6 billion in new administrative costs between now and 2022 according to a new report released by Health Affairs Blog. As the researchers note, this means Obamacare overhead accounts for an average of $1,375 per newly insured person per year.

The report notes that overhead of government programs accounts for $101.4 billion while private insurance overhead accounts for the remaining $172.2 billion.

According to co-author Steffie Woolhander, the exorbitant amounts of money spent on administrative overhead in Obamacare undermines the stated goal of the law to provide affordable coverage to uninsured Americans. In fact, 22 percent of federal spending on Obamacare is being consumed by bureaucracy.

This is not the first time Obamacare has left the American people on the hook for billions of dollars in unneccesary costs.

Since 2011, $5.4 billion in taxpayer money has gone to the states to set up healthcare exchanges. This money was given away with zero oversight and no strings attached and so it should not be surprising to hear that numerous states have wasted billions in taxpayer money on unworkable Obamacare websites.

While exchanges for Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, and Nevada have all been spectacular failures, the poster child for Obamacare waste is undoubtedly Oregon, which spent $305 million on its exchange only to later return to the federally run Healthcare.gov at an additional cost of $41 million. Since then, former Oregon Governor Kitzhaber has come under investigation over accusations he scrapped the exchange in order to help his 2014 reelection campaign, rather than making decisions based on the workability of the website.    

Already, Obamacare has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. With this latest news of out-of-control administrative costs, Congress must do more to ensure stronger oversight and accountability over the law.