
Ask HN: Would it be possible to open-source healthcare.gov? - zekenie
Sounds crazy, but why isn&#x27;t public software, well... public?
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HillRat
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.

~~~
grumps
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.

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

~~~
zekenie
I agree. Do you think anyone would contribute?

~~~
elviejo
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.

~~~
thetylerhayes
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.

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grumps
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...](http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/aca-contractors/)

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

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doubt_me
Ask the company who was contracted to build it

[http://www.cgi.com/en](http://www.cgi.com/en)

