Experts Say Poor Design Cripples Obamacare Website

No clear timeline for fixing it. And don't ask the price.


There have been plenty of disruptions this month as people tried to buy health insurance on line. The new insurance exchanges set up under the president's health care law have been impossible to navigate for many. "CBS Evening News" has been doing a lot of reporting on how things went wrong with the software—and there is more news behind the problems.

The administration claims the federal website for Obamacare isn't working because it's been swamped by high numbers of applicants. But software engineers say the website is bogging down all by itself because of poor design.

"The problem is largely structural," said Lev Lesokin of Cast Software, a company that advises 250 businesses worldwide on website efficiency.

He said the website is slowing down because it transmits 10 times more computer code than is necessary.