Social security, like taxes and the federal healthcare exchange, is ripe for a technical overhaul.
Few people realize how complicated the rules of Social Security are. That giant scroll? I’ve never seen it, but I’ve listened to many hours of discussion about how individuals might approach filing their benefits. There are many, many caveats.
There is a great opportunity for a software reboot that involves test interfaces so users can model their scenarios. The ACA marketplace offers something like this, a step in the right direction.
It’s time to enable reasonable self-service for these programs. Hopefully DOGE is the first of the incremental efforts that can bring it.
We already had efforts that bring change: the US Digital Services.
They were staffed by real professionals. Ex-Googlers and other tech talent were already working on these problems.
In contrast, DOGE was a bunch of 22 year old idiots someone found on Discord.
What have they accomplished? Other than mishandling customer data and finding some unused software licenses, it’s not clear to me.
The problem is everyone thinks solving these massive problems is easy - but it takes years of effort, inch by inch. But I guess DOGE is better for headlines, and that’s what people seem to care about.
Few people realize how complicated the rules of Social Security are. That giant scroll? I’ve never seen it, but I’ve listened to many hours of discussion about how individuals might approach filing their benefits. There are many, many caveats.
There is a great opportunity for a software reboot that involves test interfaces so users can model their scenarios. The ACA marketplace offers something like this, a step in the right direction.
It’s time to enable reasonable self-service for these programs. Hopefully DOGE is the first of the incremental efforts that can bring it.