Healthcare.Gov And The Inevitably Digital Future Of American Governance

[Commentary] The Obamacare story that will matter, and linger, is that the Affordable Care Act was the first major law implemented almost entirely online. It’s the template for the future, and rather than using its launch as an excuse to renew attacks on the law, we need to learn what we can because, like this bill or not, it is part of the next wave of government.

The tenor of the recent oversight hearings, convened by the Republican-controlled House, is that the design of the website exposed the fundamental failings of the law and government incompetence. But what’s actually been exposed is that the US government has not yet made the transition to a digital age. While the Administration could have and should have done far better, the reasons for its failure are less about a flawed process than a system currently ill-designed for this type of legislation. Testing publicly only works when there is some consensus on what the outcome should be, which in almost all cases is the actual release of the product. But imagine the political blowback if an early version of the site had been tested and then scrutinized by adversaries. They would have used the glitches as a compelling case to delay the implementation. When a fair number of people would use the flaws revealed during testing as a way to torpedo the project, optimal testing just can’t be done.