Ask HN: Would it be possible to open-source healthcare.gov? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would it be possible to open-source healthcare.gov?

16 pointszekenie11 comments

Sounds crazy, but why isn't public software, well... public?

Healthcare.gov interfaces with so many internal systems, and was subcontracted to so many parties (including big players like Experian who are exceedingly private about their software), that you couldn't untangle the hairball.

If my experience with CMS and other goverment (F, S & L) is any guide, you'd have to have extensive documentation about their particular applications running on everything from Oracle to DB2 to VSAM tables, taking input from ONC RPC calls, ZMODEM file uploads, CORBA requests, and TTY emulators. Not exactly something that you can just jump in and work on.

Beyond that, even if h/c.gov was, say, thrown up on GitHub, you couldn't just tweak some files and issue a pull request; everything has to go through FISMA audits, which make your traditional waterfall change request look like updating a blog post.

The main site is a static file generation stuff build by Development Seed. The marketplace was mostly likely built on cruft enterprise software built by government consulting firms.

True, it wouldn't be something that folks would work on for a sunday and make a pull request, but there's a ton of really important, open source software that the world relies on. Pull requests would have to be heavily vetted against complex tests and audits, I suppose, but it seems like a way to get a lot more muscle on the problem. Or maybe muscle isn't the problem? I guess I'm having a hard time understanding what the problem is...

I was thinking the same... the source code for the portal is in fact open source: https://github.com/CMSgov/healthcare.gov

But the code for the marketplace isn't.

I think if the marketplace was open bug fixing would be faster.

I agree. Do you think anyone would contribute?

Yes for two reasons:

1. "Scratching your own itch". There are several hackers / freelancers that want to enroll in healthcare and want that website to work.

2. "Altruism". There are plenty of hackers that want better healthcare for the USA and would gladly help to make that happen. Even if they aren't from the USA.

This.

There are already so many hackers working on open source projects for the government, even healthcare in government, that there would be no shortage of willing helping hands.

... and it's not even on github anymore. https://github.com/CMSgov

I've worked with contractors that own have built web applications for the government.[1] Sadly this par for the course with respect to the scalability and usability of these sites. These teams are typically only concerned about following documentation processes and meeting their security standards. I can't cite anything to prove this, but I'm really not going the route of slander, just speaking from personal experience.

[1]http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/aca-contractors...

It certainly should be, as well as most other such software funded by taxpayer money.

Ask the company who was contracted to build it

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