[upchuck]

From the article:

One key problem, which to date has been the most prominent in public, has to do with a late-in-the-game decision to require users to go through a complex account-creation process before even reaching any coverage options. Administration officials apparently went back and forth several times on this question, and the ultimate decision required the creation of a series of patches over an already developed site in a very short time.

For folks not familiar with web site design, consider this analogy:

You've had an architect design a one story house. The builder has built it per the specs. The house lacks only interior painting and floor coverings to be move-in ready.

You approach the architect and ask, "How much trouble would it be to add a second story?"

That is very similar to what happened with healthcare.gov.

[Raebie]

Exactly.

Except it’s my strong suspicion that the first floor needed a lot more than paint and floor coverings when the demand was made. I don’t think they even had all of the support beams up.