Cloud devs: We Could Have Saved Buggy HealthCare.gov

Millions of Americans flooded the new health insurance marketplaces when they opened for business earlier this month.

What we didn’t expect were the glitches, bugs, error messages, and a website that looks like it’s from 10 years ago. Almost two weeks later, people are still struggling to log in to the Obama administration’s online insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov, let alone shop for insurance.

The marketplace is intended to serve those who don’t have a state-run option.

The promise of the Affordable Care Act is that every U.S. citizen who lacks health care should have the opportunity to shop for it under terms of guaranteed coverage, with no rate inflation for preexisting medical conditions. However, both federal and state-run exchanges experienced technical difficulties, which prevented Americans from enrolling and buying insurance.

The technical problems with HealthCare.gov were particularly profound.