I don’t know whether this web designer was the lowest bidder” or not, but if they were, that didn’t necessarily have to be an impediment to success. But according to what I’ve read, this particular company had a history non-successes, and if that’s true, the vetting process was poor. But there are other reasons including the site’s under-the-hood complexity, insufficient testing, unrealistic expectations due to over-promises by the government, and, as is the case with any huge government initiative, too many “fingers in the pie” and probably some of them not overly committed to success.
But the website is the NOT “Obamacare” program—it’s only one portal to signing up. There are other ways to do that, notably by phone and in person.