But other states may move onto HealthCare.gov because of the cost of running a standalone exchange, Archambault said.  Officials in Colorado, whose exchange was built in part by hCentive, are currently trying to figure out how that martkeplace will sustain itself financially after federal funding runs out.  In the state house of Rhode Island, whose own exchange is faced with a similar problem, there is "a bipartisan bill to push their exchange to the federal exchange," Archambault said. He added, it could take several years for all of the states who end up moving to HealthCare.gov to decide to make that move.  Read MoreObamacare hasn't freed up ERs: Hospital CEO  Dan Mendelson, the CEO of the Avalere Health consultancy, said those coming years might offer even more incentive for some states to drop their exchanges and move to the federal marketplace.  Over that time, Mendelson said, the federal government will "update their own systems" on HealthCare.gov to accommodate rule changes or to accomplish technological efficiencies. "The states will have to do that" on their own exchanges as well, he said.  By turning over enrollment functions to HealthCare.gov, Mendelson said, those states will be off the hook for those system tweaks.  If more than a handful of states end up chucking their own exchanges in favor of the federal exchange, it would further underscore the dramatic turnaround at HealthCare.gov. In its first two months of operation last fall, the federal site's technological troubles delayed enrollment for thousands.  "It's interesting, because this federal system was really intended as a backup in case the states did not go down the road themselves" and build their own exchanges, Mendelson noted.
Massachusetts' crippled Obamacare exchange is the latest to scrap its existing software, but experts said Tuesday, it likely won't be the last.