“Healthcare.gov was the biggest government technology failure in recent memory. Only six people signed up successfully on the first day; millions of other people were unable to apply for health insurance. However, this grand disaster produced at least one positive outcome: healthcare.gov made possible the rise of non-traditional government IT vendors that offered high-quality products comparable to those found in the private sector. Healthcare.gov’s massive failure created two new contractors: Nava PBC and Ad Hoc.”
“Healthcare.gov’s very public failure was a call to action for mission-driven, talented technologists. All the sudden, government needed them. Rohan Bhobe, Kalvin Wang, and Sha Hwang — who would later start Nava — worked on an anonymous social network at Kanjoya, a long-distance rideshare company that went through Y Combinator, and a company that made animated cards, respectively. The three, among several others, received a call from the White House: Healthcare.gov is broken, and we need you on the rescue team.”
“Once Rohan, Kalvin, and the rest of the team were within government, they began to gain the experience they would later use to launch a new breed of federal government contractors…” Read the full post here.
Source: How healthcare.gov made good federal contractors possible – By Athena Kan, March 25, 2018. Medium.
