Obama Administration Building Healthcare Shopping Site

If you’re a technologically-inclined American, you should know the names Vivek Kundra, Jeffrey Zients, and Aneesh Chopra. They’re the three guys in the Obama Administration who are largely responsible for getting American government out of the technological dark ages.

Their current project? To give health care a jump start by creating a simple web site so Americans can easily compare and buy coverage online. Think Orbitz or hotels.com, but instead of comparing prices for your next vacation you’re finding insurance so you don’t go broke should be hospitalized.

If done right, this could be hugely beneficial for every single American citizen. Despite President Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, many Americans are still not covered, either due to inability to pay or a lack of information. By putting all relevant pricing information online in an easily readable format, the Obama Administration could combat both of these problems. After all, if the people can easily tell that one provider is offering worse service for more money, that provider will either have to change its plans or go out of business.

In Mr. Chopra’s words, this is part of bringing the “there’s an app for that”mentality to government services, whereas now Americans are treated to what he calls “there’s a form for that.”