Just before Healthcare.gov hobbled online, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, compared the federal health-care exchange to her iPad's new operating system.

If users found a few bugs in their iPads, she argued, most wouldn't consider them a complete disaster. Instead, they would recognize that technology is complicated, that errors are common, and they would wait for an update. Apple Inc., she added, has "a few more resources" than her department, so "hopefully [citizens will] give us the...