Government Calls in Help to Fix Obamacare Website

U.S. technology chief Todd Y. Park is among those who have been asked by the White House to sort out the notoriously malfunctioning federal exchange website built by a unit of CGI Group Inc.

Americans looking for health care coverage can shop on their state’s website (if their state set one up), or on the federal page. According to Bloomberg News, other than the federal site, the exchange having the most trouble is the state page built for Hawaii. Coincidentally (or not), CGI Group Inc. also had that contract.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act’s implementation, said the government has asked the contractor to assign more and better people to work on the project.

It’s about time the administration got serious about fixing the centerpiece of the president’s primary political achievement. Until now, officials have blamed high demand for the exchange’s problems, but it now seems clear that engineering has something to do with it.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer