HealthCare.gov Crashes on Day One: $630 Million System Fails Under Modest Load
What happened
HealthCare.gov, the US government's Affordable Care Act enrollment portal, crashed immediately on launch day despite months of preparation and $630 million in contractor spending. Only six people successfully enrolled on day one. The system could not handle more than a few hundred concurrent users and required six months of emergency remediation.[1]
What went wrong
No realistic load testing was performed before launch. Dozens of contractors worked with inadequate coordination and no single owner accountable for end-to-end functionality. CMS, the government agency managing it, lacked technical expertise to oversee the project and received false status reports from contractors.[1]
Lesson learned
Large government IT procurements routinely fail due to lack of technical leadership, fragmented contractor accountability, and political pressure overriding engineering advice. Load testing at realistic scale is not optional for high-profile launches. A phased rollout would have been far less damaging.
Sources
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