By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--November 13, 2013
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"They have nothing else to do but hide behind the computer. They're cyber bullying. I'm here to stand up for myself and defend myself and let people know the truth."The truth is; she volunteered to let the administration use her photo but never knew how prominent it would be. The fact that she's become so closely associated with one of the most spectacular federal tech failures in history was not part of the plan.
The saga of the photo started innocuously enough. Seeking free family photographs, Adriana emailed a contact at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for the Affordable Care Act's rollout, about having photos of her and her family taken in exchange for allowing the photos to be used to market the new health care law. She was never paid. She learned over the summer that her photo would be on healthcare.gov's main page, but she didn't realize it would become so closely associated with the problems of the glitchy website. "I mean, I don't know why people should hate me because it's just a photo. I didn't design the website. I didn't make it fail, so I don't think they should have any reasons to hate me."When her information began to surface it carried with it rumors that she was in the country illegally. It's not true. She's here legally. She just isn't a U.S. citizen yet.
Speculation swirled that Adriana might not be a legal resident of the United States, and therefore not even eligible for the health care exchanges. Adriana said she is a wife and mother who lives in Maryland with her 21-month-old son and husband of six and a half years. Her husband is a U.S. citizen, as is his her son. Adriana, who is Colombian, said she has lived legally in the U.S. for more than six years, is currently a permanent resident and is applying for citizenship.Good for her and, since she's come to the United States legally, she should be welcomed with open arms. All of this means she's eligible to enroll. Since she was the original face of the program, she's obviously done so, right? Well...
Though she is eligible for healthcare through the ACA, Adriana says she hasn't signed up for it, and is neither in favor nor against it.So, how does she feel about her involvement with the website now that the photo has been taken down?
"Like I said it was shocking. It was upsetting. It was sad. We were having a hard day when we read all this. 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." About two weeks ago, her photo was removed from the site and replaced by several icons. "That was a relief," she said. "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."That people are wasting their time bothering this woman is absolutely ridiculous. Like she says, it's not her fault that ObamaCare is such an abject failure. Please, leave her alone and focus your attention on the administration that gave you a non-functional website in an effort to sell their unsustainable health care flim-flam. That said, the Healthcare.gov designers were pretty astute when they chose a cover model who's a non-citizen that hasn't enrolled and isn't getting paid. That's the perfect symbol for the Obama Presidency.
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