14-13 Why was the Healthcare.gov project so important? The administration of President Barack Obama has made Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called “Obamacare”, its chief domestic accomplishment and the centerpiece of Obama’s legacy. Essential to Obama’s health care reform plan is Healthcare.gov, a health insurance exchange Web site that facilitates the sale of private health insurance plans to U.S. residents, assists people eligible to sign up for Medicaid, and has a separate marketplace for small businesses.

The site allows users to compare prices on health insurance plans in their states, to enroll in a plan they choose, and to find out if they qualify for government health care subsidies. Users must sign up and create their own specific account first, providing some personal information, in order to receive detailed information about available health care plans in their area.

Healthcare.gov was launched on October 1, 2013, as promised, but visitors quickly encountered numerous technical problems. Software that assigned digital identities to enrollees and ensured that they saw only their own personal data was overwhelmed.

Customers encountered cryptic error messages and could not log in to create accounts. There was insufficient computing capacity in the Herndon, Virginia, data center housing the system for the site. Many users received quotes that were incorrect because the feature used prices based on just two age groups.

It was estimated that only 1 percent of interested consumers were able to enroll through the site for the first week of operations, and many applications sent to insurers contained erroneous information.