Why The Government Unpublished The Source Code For Healthcare.gov

When the government first launched Healthcare.gov as an informational site back in June, open source advocates were delighted to hear that the code would be available for anyone to see on the public programming library GitHub. "This new flagship federal .gov website is 'open by design, open by default,'" The Atlantic wrote at the time. "That's a huge win for the American people."

But after a storm of criticism over the healthcare exchange — the second, more complex part of Healthcare.gov that launched on October 1 — the code was removed from GitHub without explanation.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency administering Healthcare.gov, has finally responded to a query from The Verge about the change. The code was pulled due to confusion over the difference between the two parts of the site, CMS says.