Healthcare.Gov: Technology Failures Are Government Failures

[Commentary] Is HealthCare.gov synonymous with the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s landmark health care reform law? Or is HealthCare.gov just a website, a tool that helps people reach those marketplaces but that doesn’t encapsulate or define them?

Whether technology is a backroom function that assists government operations or an integral part of how government does its job that can’t be neatly separated from citizen services themselves. To be clear, a large part of this is politics with a veneer of technology. President Obama and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, are two of the most tech savvy elected officials at the national level and using technology to improve how government works is one of the few areas they typically agree on. The President likened the HealthCare.gov glitches to a cash register malfunctioning while a customer is trying to purchase an otherwise high-quality product. It’s unlikely President Obama would be making the product-cash register distinction if HealthCare.gov was running smoothly. And Rep. Issa, one of the President’s chief critics, would likely have more patience with a site that supported a policy he wasn’t ideologically opposed to. That said, it’s worth being clear about just how important technology is to government programs. And, on balance, this debate should go to Rep. Issa. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe that HealthCare.gov’s flaws reflect larger problems with the health care reform law. They’re right.