[ollymorgs]

The government contractors should of just built healthcare.gov as a data service and asked people like these guys to build an intuitive front-end for it. Then if people don't like the interface, they can do something about it :) This may also help to dissipate the traffic load and present the same data in more relevant ways to different types people. The idea of building apps as single, monolithic system is out-dated.

Even though I'm a Brit, some governments are making moves to modernise and open up their data for others to play with, over here we've got a great government-funded team working on exactly that (called the GDS). (http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/)

Frankly I think this is a massively expensive and missed opportunity for the US Government's digital service team.

[hga]

Well, the government contracts didn't have that level of control, political and bureaucratic types from the White House on down to HHS's CMS were running the show, delivering requirements very late in the game and making constant changes to them, including the "no window shopping" registration first in August, and from many reports change orders through the week before launch.

So you ought to say "The government should of just built healthcare.gov..." ... except that's very clearly not the style of this government.

E.g. one simple way to take traffic off most of the system would be to provide an interface to the subsidy calculation to entities beyond the state exchanges (who have to use it; when Verzion accidentally took the site offline, they couldn't do much), like insurers. It's said to be on the todo list, but at a very low priority.

[drivingmissm]

Britain is far worse than the USA -- your health care system just flushed $18 billion down the loo on a massively failed IT system.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...

[hga]

A closer reading reveals that 11 billion (I assume that's thousand million) pounds was the projected cost at the time for completion of the system. "Only" 2.7 billion, or 4.3 billion USD, has been spent, although I don't know if there are contract terminations of serious size to be paid.

Still, it's an epic failure, said to be the greatest single one in government IT contracting.

(E.g. I'll bet the FAA's eternal quest to upgrade from their 1940's (sic) technique and '60s or so architecture has cost more over time, but not any single failed effort.)

[ollymorgs]

Yea we get stuff wrong too. That was a massive balls up, but well before the time of the GDS team.

Also note that the NHS system was about building a database for every NHS health record across the country; prescription notices, medial history, etc. etc.

I'm not sure it'll even be legal now. HealthCare.gov isn't going nearly as far as that.