According to a report by The New York Times, as many as 5 million lines of computer code will need to be rewritten before HealthCare.gov works as intended (we’d argue that no amount of rewritten code will make the ACA work, but that’s a different discussion). But if 5 million lines of code sounds like a lot (and it is), wait until you hear this: According to one expert familiar with HealthCare.gov, the site’s source contains approximately 500 million lines of code. To put that in perspective, the entire Linux operating system kernel that powers the majority of the Web’s servers (including HealthCare.gov’s) contains just under 16 million lines of code, and is the result of 22 years of ongoing development. The space shuttle’s primary flight control system was comprised of 400,000 lines of code. Even Windows XP was built in 45 million lines of code. Once again, we can depend on government (to make things incredibly complicated).