S.F. programmers build alternative to HealthCare.gov

S.F. programmers build alternative to HealthCare.gov

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  S.F. programmers buildalternative to HealthCare.gov I wanted to go in and fix it myself, but I don't write code." But plenty of programmers do write code. And three of them have created their own website that addresses some of the most annoying problems with HealthCare.gov. In a San Francisco office shared with other tech start-ups, three 20-year-olds saw HealthCare.gov as a challenge. Michael Wasser, Ning Liang, and George Kalogeropoulos (l-r) built their own website HealthSherpa to address the problems that dogged HealthCare.gov. CBS News With a few late nights, Ning Liang, George Kalogeropoulos and Michael Wasser built "thehealthsherpa.com," a two-week-old website that solves one of the biggest problems with the government's site. "They got it completely backwards in terms of what people want up front," said Liang. All Rights Reserved. . Users who find a plan they like can go directly to the insurance companies without ever using HealthCare.gov. © 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. "You come to our website and you put in your zip code -- in this case a California zip code. He added: "They want prices and benefits, so that they could make the decision." Liang showed CBS News how it worked. "It was like, 'This is a problem that we know we can solve in a really short period of time. "You sit around a table and say, 'Okay, how does this work?' There's no coordination meetings, there's no planning sessions. So let's just do it.'"
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  Using information buriedin the government's own website built by high-priced government contractors, they found a simpler way to present it to users. "That's the great thing about having such a small team," said Kalogeropoulos. Michael Wasser, Ning Liang, and George Kalogeropoulos (l-r) built their own website HealthSherpa to address the problems that dogged HealthCare.gov. But this project is a public service. As Ning Liang showed CBS News correspondent John Blackstone how HealthSherpa worked on a computer screen, a person enters their area code and then will see the exchange plans available for that zip code. CBS News "There was no thought of, 'How do we make money this time?'" said Wasser. You hit 'find plans,' and you immediately see the exchange plans that are available for that zip code." They have plenty of experience working at places like Twitter and Microsoft before setting out to build their own Internet companies. It's like, 'Well, let's read the document and let's implement this.'" And the features keep on coming. But as Liang explained: "Yes, we added this last night...the subsidy calculation is fairly complicated, but it wasn't too bad." You can't actually enroll on the HealthSherpa site, but they do provide contact information for companies offering the plans. CBS News (CBS News) On Friday, President Obama had this to say about problems with the Obamcare website during a speech in New Orleans: "I promise you, nobody's been more frustrated. CBS News looked at the team's website Thursday and pointed out that the tax subsidy wasn't in there, which is supposed to be one of the most complicated parts of the HealthCare.gov site