President Obama’s campaign relied on a mix of private-sector-trained technology workers and a well-developed ecosystem of technologies available from competitive consultants to beat Mitt Romney in the 2012 United States Presidential Election. During the Obama administration’s second term they began phasing in all major components of the Affordable Care Act. The act met unprecedented opposition and numerous aspects of the legislation were highly controversial. However, the digital components of the legislation never received an equal amount of national attention preceding HealthCare.Gov’s launch on October 1st, 2013. Despite the vast debate of political ideologies, philosophy, and nitty-gritty healthcare details it would ultimately be a failed website that would cause HealthCare.Gov to have a disastrous launch. Within the first 24 hours of the website going live only 6 individuals throughout the country were able to sign up online successfully. The problems that HealthCare.Gov encountered during its launch did not stem from either the Democratic or Republican parties, rather the archaic and flawed Federal Acquisition Regulation that the government has to abide by during federal technology procurement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/video/onbackground/obamacare-web-site-launches-with-a-thud/2013/10/09/aaac8b3c-3107-11e3-89ae-16e186e117d8_video.html

Statistically HealthCare.Gov had a 6 percent chance of success

according to the research firm the Standish Group. The group found that 94 percent of large federal information technology projects over the past 10 years were unsuccessful — more than half were delayed, over budget, or didn’t meet user expectations, and 41.4 percent failed completely. HealthCare.Gov is the latest in a long history of failed digital projects implemented by the United States government. For example, Sam.gov, a system for government contractors developed by I.B.M. that started in 2012, has cost taxpayers $181 million ($38 million over budget) after being delayed for two months and being taken on and offline numerous times after launch for repair. Before that, a new version of USAJobs.gov failed, after years during which millions were spent. In 2001, the F.B.I. started a virtual case file system, and after dumping the project, renaming it, and finding new vendors to build it, the project, “Sentinel,” finally launched in 2013, 12 years after its conception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M8O83n254

“The episode is all too typical of how government creates IT services,”

stated Tom Lee, director of Sunlight Labs, the research arm of the Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for more government transparency.

“The procurement process tends to select for firms that are good at navigating the procurement process, not providing good IT services for the dollar.”

Politicians and contractors argue that the services they are trying to provide are more complicated than those in the private sector.

Aneesh Chopra, a former White House chief technology officer, said there is a common misperception that any “three kids in a garage” can put together a Web site. However those sentiments have proved to be untrue, especially in the case of HealthCare.Gov. The one element of the site that has received significant praise is the “front-end” in other words the part with the smiling young woman and the encouraging words “The Health Insurance Marketplace is Open!” has worked with few glitches, earning praise for how easily it adapts to different devices, including the small screens of most smartphones. Unlike other elements of the website this was developed by a small 12-man start-up technology company based out of garage in the District of Columbia entitled Development Seed.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation

is a 1,800 page legal document which contains standard solicitation provisions and contract clauses. This legislation prevents small technology firms from competing with large, entrenched vendors providing subpar services. President Obama even acknowledged the procurement systems inefficiencies, stating