John Engates went to the White House Monday to get a closer look at what went wrong with HealthCare.gov. Unlike actor Jimmy Stewart’s Mr. Smith, Engates came away from Washington saying this problem can be fixed.
Rackspace CTO John Engates went to the White House Monday to get a closer look at what went wrong with HealthCare.gov. What he saw convinced him that Big Government doesn’t operate the way enterprises do — and maybe it should.
Engates was one of the few technology industry spokespersons to step forward when the controversy over HealthCare.gov broke out. He was quoted, among other places, on the front page of USA Today, commenting that the site appeared not to have government repositories that could keep up with its needs.
Engates doesn’t fit the stereotype of a business-oriented government critic. “I was very proud and excited to be invited,” he said in an interview after returning to his home base in San Antonio, Texas. At the same time, he hasn’t hesitated to describe the launch of the administration’s public enrollment website as “one of the most spectacular public failures ever.”
While Engates has plenty of criticism for HealthCare.gov’s troubled start, the visit to Washington bolstered his confidence that the site is now on track. . .