Credit Health and Human Services and the folks behind Healthcare.gov with figuring out one mistake. Many people hesitated to put in lots and lots of their personal information — under penalty of perjury for anything inaccurate! — to a glitchy web site before they could even see any of their insurance options.

So Healthcare.gov now has a “premium calculator,” which requires you to plug in your locality, what kind of insurance you’re looking for (medical or dental), and whether you’re shopping for yourself or your family. Presto: a list of estimated premiums for bronze, silver, gold, and platinum plans available in your area. The site emphasizes several times that the menu doesn’t include any subsidy you would qualify for based on income. The site doesn’t ask about age or whether one is a smoker, and it doesn’t give details about co-pays, deductibles, or other details. The site doesn’t have a click-through to the insurance company to move ahead with the purchase. But if you’re shopping for insurance, it’s a good place to start.

In a way, it’s what the administration originally promised: an Expedia or Travelocity-style site that gives consumers a selection of options and information about the trade-offs between cost and coverage.

So why did we need the original monstrosity of Healthcare.gov? Well, as noted, without the applicant’s income level — which is supposed to be verified by the Internal Revenue Service — the calculator can’t account for any subsidy that the applicant may qualify for under Obamacare. Secondly, without the subsidies or the mandate, there’s no need for the government to get involved. In fact, Healthcare.gov’s premium calculator is kind of like the private sector’s ehealthinsurance.com. Why did the government need to duplicate the private service?

It’s almost as if requiring every American to provide lots and lots of personal health information into a permanent government database was a key goal.