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How Healthcare.gov’s botched rollout led to a digital services revolution in government

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What: The rollout of HealthCare.gov
When: The website was launched as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2013.
Why it matters: HealthCare.gov was meant to help users sign up for health insurance plans created under the legislation. The failed launch catalyzed a movement that would redefine how government implements technology and give rise to the creation of the U.S. Digital Service.
To celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2025, we’re spotlighting 25 pivotal moments that reshaped the way the government operates. Visit our anniversary page each week as we look back on these defining moments.

USDS using new strategy to find data scientists

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/podcast/federal-drive-with-terry-gerton-podcast/usds-using-new-strategy-to-find-data-scientists/ 

The crash of HealthCare.gov in October 2013 sparked a nationwide conversation about how the federal government designs and launches online services to the public.

The website was launched as part of the Affordable Care Act, and was meant to help users sign up for health insurance plans created under the legislation. But the site was unable to handle the large volume of web traffic on the first day of its launch.

But the failure of Healthcare.gov didn’t just spark public outrage — it catalyzed a movement that would redefine how government implements technology, and give rise to the creation of the U.S. Digital Service.

Former USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang served on an ad hoc “tech surge” team in the immediate aftermath of the HealthCare.gov crash. 

“What we discovered was there were many people working across different parts of healthcare.gov who knew there was a big problem; who were not really surprised at the outcome.  They would tell us ‘We knew that this was going to happen.’ So then the question is- how do you ensure that people with detailed understanding of what is going on have an appropriate voice and are empowered?  How do we make sure that leaders are asking the right questions and hearing from the right people?  Because that’s clearly not what was happening.  It became clear that incentives are not correctly set up for it, and also there weren’t the people with the right expertise in key leadership positions.  So our team was a key part of the near-term solution for that.” Hsiang said. 

Code for America CEO Amanda Renteria, who was working in the Senate at the time, said the rocky rollout underscored a disconnect between policy and implementation.

The Affordable Care Act, she said, “was this major win for this administration, and then it was hit by this implementation problem that made it very clear that implementation matters.”

“So much of implementation is reliant on how we deliver services, and that is reliant on our infrastructure and technology,” Renteria said.

About a year after the HealthCare.gov crash, the White House launched the U.S. Digital Service, a tech team within the Executive Office of the President.

“In the beginning, the USDS work was a lot like being an EMT. We arrived when something was in crisis and could diagnose and stabilize the situation and take things that were struggling and make them dramatically more successful,” Hsiang said.

But over time, USDS became less reactive and took a more proactive approach to digital services. 

“I, during my tenure, worked to continue to evolve the function of USDS, because ideally, you stop having so many emergency situations. You start saying, ‘OK, what would good look like?’” Hsiang said. “Not just rescue, but how can we actually help agencies and the federal government, writ large, understand what true technology-enabled, user-focused, human-focused execution looks like? And that requires expertise in all of these fields – product management, engineering, design, but also contracting.”

USDS started out as a crisis response team to address service delivery challenges. But over time, USDS helped more than 30 agencies deliver a better digitally-enabled experience to the public.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, USDS launched a vaccine finder tool.USDS recently helped the IRS develop Direct File, a free online tax preparation that was piloted in a dozen states in 2024 and expanded to 25 states in 2025.

“When you’re testing things out in government, the scale is so big, the scrutiny is really high, and so the need to be thoughtful is incredibly important, and it’s lasted. When we were rolling out Direct File, people were like, how can this not be like HealthCare.gov?” Renteria said.

‘You can’t do agile in a waterfall world’

Healthcare.gov’s failure exposed the dangers of waterfall-style development, a method of long planning cycles followed by a single, large-scale release.  The recovery process for Healthcare.gov underscored how agile software development could work in government.

USDS and the General Services Administration’s 18F tech office began institutionalizing modern development practices — iterative testing, user research and accessibility by design.

“It really challenged traditional wisdom at the time,” said Lindsay Young, a former 18F administrator and founding member of the tech office. “It helped redefine what was safe to do. It turned into a success. I think that really gave wind in the sails for the way forward.”

Jen Pahlka, former U.S. chief technology officer and founder of Code for America, who helped found USDS, said the botched HealthCare.gov rollout also revealed deeper structural problems.

“You can’t do agile in a waterfall world,” Pahlka said. “You could spend a lot of political capital passing a huge, important bill, and that might not matter, if you hadn’t thought about and protected the space for implementing that bill. It’s not just the software that has to be agile. Everything around it — funding, management, contracting — needs to change, too.”

Pahlka said USDS succeeded in planting the seeds of a better way of working, even if it wasn’t always visible.

“What used to be something that USDS did for agencies is now just something agencies do,” she said. “It’s happening behind the scenes, in the dogs that don’t bark — the things that work, that don’t make headlines.”

Pahlka said the government’s ability to deliver benefits and services also has a direct impact on public trust in government.

“People are starting to have delightful experiences, doing things like renewing their passports,” she said. “They assume they’re going to stand in line, and then they don’t have to. That changes how people think about government.”

Rise of DOGE

The work of USDS has changed substantially under the Trump administration.  President Donald Trump, soon after taking office in January, signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and renamed USDS as the “U.S. DOGE Service.” USDS lost many of its previous employees with the rise of DOGE.

USDS leaders have always championed a culture of cutting through bureaucracy. But the pace of DOGE’s changes gives some pause.

“When people move fast and things break in government, it doesn’t just have real harm to people, but it has a lasting impact on trust in public institutions,” Renteria said.

Young stressed that those working on digital tools within the federal government “have a responsibility to the security and privacy of the public.”

“It’s just so unnecessary to rush things out the door without testing or basic security,” she said.

Amid all these changes, the ideas seeded by USDS endure.

“A lot of the best work is going to be done at the state and local government level,” said Amy Paris, a former USDS team lead. “Where USDS is going to live on is in organizations that are out there actively trying to provide services for the American people.”

Young said the tools and playbooks developed at 18F and USDS continue to guide digital modernization efforts.

“People that we’ve never even met are able to use templates, are able to use best practices playbooks, and USDS put together a lot of good playbooks as well. That kind of knowledge we have just been working on preserving,” she said.

The post How Healthcare.gov’s botched rollout led to a digital services revolution in government first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Politics

Hulk Hogan’s Death Certificate Released

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18 hours ago

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August 2, 2025

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Hulk Hogan’s death certificate was obtained by TMZ on Friday.

Hogan passed away at the age of 71 last Thursday from acute myocardial infarction. He also had a history of leukemia.

The wrestling legend was rushed to the hospital last week after emergency responders received a phone call for “cardiac arrest.”

The death certificate revealed Hulk Hogan was cremated in Clearwater, Florida.

“Hulk’s official cause of death was previously revealed as a heart attack. His medical records also showed a history of atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. HH was also diagnosed with a form of cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), though details surrounding the cancer are unclear,” TMZ reported.

Hulk Hogan death certificate / TMZ

President Trump praised Hulk Hogan for his “absolutely electric” speech at last year’s RNC convention.

“We lost a great friend today, the “Hulkster.” Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week. He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!”

Hulk Hogan and his wife were baptized in December 2023.

“Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life. No worries, no hate, no judgment… only love!” Hulk Hogan said.

RIP to an American icon.

The post Hulk Hogan’s Death Certificate Released appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Politics

Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Democrat Party

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18 hours ago

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August 2, 2025

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Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Radical Democrat Wing: “Either the Party Ends, or the United States Ends”

In a bold and fiery statement that has made waves across social media and major news outlets, commentator Stephen A. Smith unleashed a scathing rebuke of the radical left’s takeover of the Democratic Party. Targeting the likes of New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Bernie Sanders, Smith warned of the existential threat their socialist ideas pose to the future of the United States.

Smith reacted to a recent statement by Mamdani, who argued that “no

The post Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Democrat Party appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Trump Gets Backlash Over RNC Chair Endorsement: An LGBT ‘Ally’ Who ‘Just Tried to Pass Amnesty’

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August 2, 2025

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Get ready for the next clash of conservatives.

When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley announced Thursday he is entering the race for Senate in North Carolina, he did more than put a second high-profile name in the running in the Tar Heel State.

He set up what could be a bruising battle for leadership of the GOP on a nationwide scale.

In a July 24 post on the social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump, the hands-down heavyweight of party politics, heartily endorsed Whatley in the North Carolina race, and at the same time endorsed Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, the party’s current national treasurer, to step into Whatley’s place.

But there’s already a groundswell of opposition to Gruters. And one of his most vocal opponents is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As the Sunshine State news website Florida Politics noted in a July 16 report, DeSantis slammed Gruters in a news conference where DeSantis appointed Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to the post of Florida chief financial officer.

It’s a job Gruters has been running for since May of last year.

While appointing a rival to the vacant post, DeSantis made his distaste for Gruters painfully clear.

“If George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ my response would be, no, I can’t do that without betraying the voters that elected me,” DeSantis said, according to Florida Politics.

He accused Gruters of siding with teachers’ unions in battles with the state government, as well as supporting the marijuana industry (a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use failed in November).

According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis and Gruters clashed over a bill Gruters supported that would have put the job of chief immigration officer in the state in the hands of the state’s agriculture commissioner.

In a post on the social media platform X, DeSantis called the bill “truly contemptible” and described it as “amnesty.”

And as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported in January 2020, Gruters had a history of sponsoring pro-gay legislation in the state before appearing to reverse course.

“I’m an ally of the LGBTQ community,” he told the newspaper.

More recently, in April, Gruters made the wrong kind of headlines when the U.K.’s Daily Mail, a British outlet with a major North American presence, revealed he was a follower of 60 accounts on the adult-themed OnlyFans site.

(“I typically engage accounts that are recommended or interact with my account,” Gruters told the Daily Mail. “That said, I will review my follows and remove any content that may be considered questionable.”)

Conservative media users aren’t letting that past go.

“Perfect for San Francisco, nightmare for Florida,” one pro-DeSantis account on the social media platform X declared.

“Gruters just tried to pass amnesty for illegal aliens in Florida,” wrote another user.

The conservative pro-life website LifeSiteNews made its view clear in its headline and summary head about Trump’s endorsement.

“Trump endorses LGBT ‘ally’ Joe Gruters to be next RNC chair,” the headline declared.

The summary headline?

“Donald Trump has endorsed Joe Gruters to lead the Republican National Committee despite the Florida lawmaker’s liberal stances on LGBT ‘discrimination,’ immigration, teachers’ unions, and marijuana.”

According to Florida Politics, Gruters was the first Florida lawmaker to make an official endorsement of Trump in the Republican 2024 primary — snubbing DeSantis’ short-lived, mistake-in-hindsight primary challenge to the 45th president.

That no doubt plays a role in both Trump’s support for Gruters and DeSantis’ opposition, but there appear to be deeper factors at play here.

In a job as crucial as the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, having anything less than sterling, unblemished bona fides is going to be a problem with a voter base with a limited trust in establishment politicians, even if they have an “R” next to their name.

Questionable positions on “trans” issues, illegal immigration, and drugs — not to mention raising eyebrows by following OnlyFans models — are serious red flags for any contender for the job.

Trump has proven over and over again what he can accomplish with sheer force of will, and he’s almost single-handedly responsible for revising the ideological power of the Republican Party after the dormancy of the post-Mitt Romney world.

As the titular head of the party, as well as probably the single most influential human being in the world, much less the American GOP, he could almost certainly install any chairman of the party he chooses.

However, the situation now is the midterms are approaching next year, and the magic “Trump” name is not on the ballot — which means the energy of the party faithful is going to be at a premium for all of the Republican Party.

The question for Trump is, is a clash with conservatives worth it?

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Trump Gets Backlash Over RNC Chair Endorsement: An LGBT ‘Ally’ Who ‘Just Tried to Pass Amnesty’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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