Obamacare site flaws due to government's innovation problem

[Commentary] The endless number of Obamacare website screw-ups highlights the lack of innovation within the US government, according to the man who used to be the Obama Administration's chief tech guru.

"It's embracing 1960's era technology," said former US Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. "A core issue there is a same set of problems we've seen in the past." As the first CIO of the United States, Kundra's been credited with instituting a cloud-first policy to help make the government more efficient. It's a policy Kundra says could have saved folks building out healthcare.gov time and money. Clay Johnson, who is also a former member of President Barack Obama's technology team, said government contractors recognize that the way to make money is to throw more people at the problem rather than figuring out a way to deliver the best solution at the lowest cost. Government agencies would like nothing more than to have the best and brightest minds in the world working on healthcare.gov, Johnson said. But the best they've got to choose from are a few dozen companies. It's a culture that calls for several cooks in the kitchen with little accountability.