Log on to a private carrier like anthem and you get a quote with in seconds. I was watching an interview with a web developer who said it looked someone with little experiance put the site together and it could easily be fixed at little cost. But I guess that would be too easy.
To be fair, I don't think
any site that aims to serve both content and data, features registrations, management features, complex data models and backend integration at this scale can be fixed at little cost. Anyone who says so is either clueless or has an ulterior motive.
The sort of site we are talking about here is a
massive undertaking even if all you want to do is utilize an existing CMS system with a fancy skinned front end. There's a reason why companies like Peoplesoft have very well-paid integration engineers whose job is to help their customers integrate the software with their business.
The Federal Government employs many skilled and competent administrators and programmers, and this isn't a dig against them but I'm not surprised that the healthcare.gov site is melting down. Even if everything was working right, it's hard to predict how complex systems will behave under complex and unpredictable loads. Some instability, some issues, some downtime is to be expected as the kinks are ironed out.
But this is more than kinks. This feels like a joke almost. t is clear that the development and the roll out have been horribly managed... I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised at that. If anything the Federal Government is a world-renowned expert in the field of bad management.
