healthcare.gov

The New Yorker ~ Barry Blitt

If you can bear it, read this TechCrunch article from the spring of 2010 about the clever minds at work on healthcare.gov. This is why the federal government has no business doing what private industry, or even the states, can do better. Idealism's a nice notion, but when you legislate control of an annual $1.7 trillion industry, realism is a requirement. That means real business leaders with management expertise and track records, not simply hip crowdsourcers. Playing business, er politics, with "other peoples' money" is a prescription for failure. Another round of golf anyone?

Excerpts here:

“We were working 24/7, working in very, very rapid cycles, with very, very short deadlines and milestones. We were working in a very, very nimble hyper consumer focused way…all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all nighters, and you know idealism.”

That may sound like the caffeine-fueled, sleep-deprived rant of a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Except it’s not— try Todd Park, the buttoned-up CTO of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).