7 ms·

The Obamacare website cost $2 billion according to a Bloomberg piece in 2014. Don't ask me how that's even possible.

rtx 6y ago
It's possible if some money is flowing back to the people approving the deal.
pxeboot 6y ago
And don't forget the State of Oregon paid an additional $240 million for their own version of it [1]. [1] https://www.koin.com/news/oregon-oracle-settle-cover-oregon-lawsuits-for-100m/ https://www.koin.com/news/oregon-oracle-settle-cover-oregon-...
- mraza007 6y ago
  Wow I’m amazed like how much money can made if you are into government contracting I’m just curious to know can you get government contracts let’s say if you are running a software agency
  - Zenst 6y ago
    Yes, how to apply and secure governmental contracts and grants is something many educational curriculum miss out upon in life.
    - hertzrat 6y ago
      How does the process work?
      - raverbashing 6y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_procurement_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_procurement_in_the_... This is the overview, there are other websites that go more into the details if you google it But basically it is survival of the most boring and the most detailistic. Then of course you lose the tender because you weren't "in the know", or you missed the requirements of the Toilet Procurement acts of 1974 which specified the thickness and traction resistance of toilet paper used in government purchases. Oh and if you're "lucky" your Health contract management software will suddenly have to be able to order pizza as well, you know, it's "just an extra thing". But you won't get paid while that doesn't happen (ok this might not apply to the USA specifically, but you get the idea)
      - xondono 6y ago
        In most countries it works by having a buddy making the choices
  - alasdair_ 6y ago
    A lot of “government contracting” is having people whose job it is to find the people that can authorize a sale and then hand-hold them through all the paperwork needed for them to actually make the sale.
    - dreamcompiler 6y ago
      This. Gov contracting is a rare, specialized skill. That's why the same big companies keep getting big contracts over and over. If you're a company without these skills you have no chance at landing one of the giant contracts. The CYA and auditing requirements are too insane to even write the proposal without a full-time staff of contracting specialists and a long track record of prior contracting. (As a new contractor you might be able to get a small-money contract from e.g. the SBIR but those max out at roughly $100K.)
- selimthegrim 6y ago
  I met a manager of this once. She told me Oracle hired anyone with a college degree (hers was English) for her job because “managing developers isn’t that hard, you just have to keep track of milestones etc”
seshagiric 6y ago
Was it built by Deloitte too?
- fmakunbound 6y ago
  No, it was CGI Federal (mentioned in the article)
canofbars 6y ago
Because governments outsource everything possible and end up with no persistent talent that really understands whats going on so you end up spending all the money on interfacing with contractors.
- petarb 6y ago
  What if the government had an internal technology division to build things like this
  - ric2b 6y ago
    Nah, there are more important things like spaceforce /s
  - aweiland 6y ago
    They can't afford to get the talent on the GS schedule.
tzs 6y ago
My recollection of prior HN discussions is that a large part of it was that it involved interfacing to systems in a large number of agencies or departments. Most of those systems were old systems, independently developed systems, that had not been designed to have APIs for other agencies to use (or had not been designed to have APIs at all). I think it might also have had to interface to state systems in the states that were not running their own ACA exchanges, and to the systems of numerous insurance companies.

rtx 6y ago

It's possible if some money is flowing back to the people approving the deal.

And don't forget the State of Oregon paid an additional $240 million for their own version of it [1]. [1] https://www.koin.com/news/oregon-oracle-settle-cover-oregon-lawsuits-for-100m/ https://www.koin.com/news/oregon-oracle-settle-cover-oregon-...

mraza007 6y ago
Wow I’m amazed like how much money can made if you are into government contracting I’m just curious to know can you get government contracts let’s say if you are running a software agency
- Zenst 6y ago
  Yes, how to apply and secure governmental contracts and grants is something many educational curriculum miss out upon in life.
  - hertzrat 6y ago
    How does the process work?
    - raverbashing 6y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_procurement_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_procurement_in_the_... This is the overview, there are other websites that go more into the details if you google it But basically it is survival of the most boring and the most detailistic. Then of course you lose the tender because you weren't "in the know", or you missed the requirements of the Toilet Procurement acts of 1974 which specified the thickness and traction resistance of toilet paper used in government purchases. Oh and if you're "lucky" your Health contract management software will suddenly have to be able to order pizza as well, you know, it's "just an extra thing". But you won't get paid while that doesn't happen (ok this might not apply to the USA specifically, but you get the idea)
    - xondono 6y ago
      In most countries it works by having a buddy making the choices
- alasdair_ 6y ago
  A lot of “government contracting” is having people whose job it is to find the people that can authorize a sale and then hand-hold them through all the paperwork needed for them to actually make the sale.
  - dreamcompiler 6y ago
    This. Gov contracting is a rare, specialized skill. That's why the same big companies keep getting big contracts over and over. If you're a company without these skills you have no chance at landing one of the giant contracts. The CYA and auditing requirements are too insane to even write the proposal without a full-time staff of contracting specialists and a long track record of prior contracting. (As a new contractor you might be able to get a small-money contract from e.g. the SBIR but those max out at roughly $100K.)
selimthegrim 6y ago
I met a manager of this once. She told me Oracle hired anyone with a college degree (hers was English) for her job because “managing developers isn’t that hard, you just have to keep track of milestones etc”

seshagiric 6y ago

Was it built by Deloitte too?

fmakunbound 6y ago
No, it was CGI Federal (mentioned in the article)

canofbars 6y ago

Because governments outsource everything possible and end up with no persistent talent that really understands whats going on so you end up spending all the money on interfacing with contractors.

petarb 6y ago
What if the government had an internal technology division to build things like this
- ric2b 6y ago
  Nah, there are more important things like spaceforce /s
- aweiland 6y ago
  They can't afford to get the talent on the GS schedule.

tzs 6y ago

My recollection of prior HN discussions is that a large part of it was that it involved interfacing to systems in a large number of agencies or departments. Most of those systems were old systems, independently developed systems, that had not been designed to have APIs for other agencies to use (or had not been designed to have APIs at all). I think it might also have had to interface to state systems in the states that were not running their own ACA exchanges, and to the systems of numerous insurance companies.