The woman dubbed “the face of ObamaCare” — whose smiling photo mysteriously vanished from the HealthCare.gov Web site after its disastrous rollout last month — lashed out at critics in her first public comments.
“They have nothing else to do but hide behind the computer. They’re cyberbullying,” the woman, identified only as Adriana, whined to ABC News.
Adriana — a Colombian national who as a legal resident and is eligible for coverage under the plan — said she was humiliated by the abuse hurled her way by late night comics and other critics of the deeply flawed Affordable Care Act.
“I mean, I don’t know why people should hate me because it’s just a photo. I didn’t design the Web site. I didn’t make it fail, so I don’t think they should have any reasons to hate me,” Adriana said.
The Maryland resident and married mother of a 21-month-old son said she contacted a pal at the agency responsible for ObamaCare’s rollout and agreed to the photo shoot so she could get free family portraits.
But she was stunned by the negative response.
“It was upsetting. It was sad. We were having a hard day when we read all this,” she said. “And in a way, I’m glad that my son is not old enough to understand, because you know whatever happens to you, it hurts them too.”
Adriana said her husband and son are both US citizens and that she’s lived in the States for more than six years and is applying for citizenship.
“I’m here to stand up for myself and defend myself and let people know the truth,” she told the network.
And she was relieved when the feds removed her photo from the site about two weeks ago, replacing it with a series of icons touting highlights of the program, which even ex-President Bill Clinton has knocked.
“They took the picture down. I wanted the picture down, and they wanted the picture down. I don’t think anybody wanted to focus on the picture,” she said.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman told ABC that Adriana’s photo was taken down because “Healthcare.gov is a dynamic website,” not because she requested it.