Thousands of pages of barely parsable legalese, constantly changing in different places to keep different politicians on board, the final copy rammed through before the ink dried, what could possibly go wrong? From an engineering perspective the health bill was a QA nightmare.

Don't pretty much all bills work this way? Was the healthcare bill really so different to the norm?

Not at all. This bill is notable for its complexity, scope and unpopularity. Day by day people disliked it more and more and everyone involved wanted to get it off the TV as soon as possible. When a bill is more popular there is less thrashing. People don't need to desperately alter things to appease individual politicians. Each of those patches is essentially a hack to cover one corner case. This bill is full of them. Popularity equates to a more stable code base. Politicians are also more productive when doing something popular. They are less likely to "grab what they can" and more likely to contribute to the bill's success and thus their re-election.

We've all been there... A few nights before a release we realize we have an unmaintainable mess and the deadline needs to be pushed so we can go back to square one. This is what happens when you release anyways.

I think it's pretty average. Some are better. Some are worse. The USA PATRIOT act wasn't even available to read, even for the Congressmen themselves, before the voting.

"Don't pretty much all bills work this way?"

Yes. That's why they're generally such train wrecks.

Yes. The realization of this fact drives some of us to become anarchists.

Rammed through, as in, legally voted for by two legislative bodies and signed by the President, the same way every piece of legislation has ever been since the beginning of the USA?