” after the site ’s disastrous october 1 launch , the bug - infested website healthcare.gov turned out to be anything but “ real simple .
not considered in the 2011 selection process was the history of numerous executives at cgi federal , who had come from another company that had mishandled at least 20 other government ­information technology projects more than a decade ago .
it was at that earlier time that the problems at american management systems , the fairfax county it contractor acquired by cgi , would have figured into the assessment of cgi federal , contracting experts say .
“ now , this is real simple , ” president obama told a crowd at prince george ’s community college , in maryland , in late september .
the story of how the obama administration and the centers for medicare and medicaid services ( cms ) , the agencies tasked with implementing the affordable care act got it so cgi federal already had been cleared to do government documents and people familiar with the decision .
the new york times called the broken website a “ crisis that suddenly threatened his presidency , ” and according to a cbs news poll , obama will be even harder to fix .
but federal officials were not required to examine that long - term track record , which included a highly publicized failure to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers .
“ it ’s a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health - insurance plans , side by side , the same way you shop for a plane ticket on kayak … same way you shop for a tv on amazon .
americans ’ approval of the affordable care act has also dropped to its lowest level since cbs news began polling support for the law .