. . .HealthCare.Gov’s original developers can’t tell you what’s wrong with HealthCare.Gov.
When Development Seed was working on HealthCare.Gov, they made a conscious choice to keep all of their code open-source. CGI Federal’s part of the Web site, which powers things such as account creation, is not open source, which means that Gundersen is essentially an outside observer like the rest of us.
Reddit commenters have also noted the difference. “The marketplace API (closed source) and the website frontend (open source) were built in connected but separate processes by two different entities,” one commenter recently pointed out. “The code for the marketplace was not ‘yanked’, it was never published.”
“If people had more insight into the code, and it was open, a lot more people would have a sense of what’s happening,” Gundersen said. “Since day one, we were open code. Right now, anyone can look at the raw source code, and there’s none of the black box speculation. A lot of people are now getting to see how messed up IT procurement is. They can feel the pain of what’s happened with some critical software.”
Development Seed was hoping to buy its own coverage on the marketplace.
The firm had an even more personal stake in its software: It hoped to purchase coverage for employees through the health law’s marketplace. Right now, it gives workers a set stipend to purchase their own plan in the individual market.
“This week I wanted to come in and get everyone registered,” he said. That, as of this posting, has not happened. . .