The Enigmatic Mona Lisa of Health Care': The Mystery Behind the Smiling Obamacare Website Girl

The Obamacare website has been a glitchy, error-riddled mess since it first launched on Oct. 1.

And while experiences with the site have varied for many users, there has been one constant: the smiling woman prominently featured on HealthCare.gov’s main page.

Image source: Healthcare.gov

Considering that the site's main page seems to be the only thing that works, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the woman in the stock photo has become something of a mystery and a celebrity.

She has also become the object of much ridicule. The satirical website The Onion, for instance, published a story Tuesday titled, “People In Healthcare.gov Stock Photos Now Visibly Panicking”:

Image source: The Onion

Conservative blogger David Burge tweeted: “Congrats, vapidly smiling Healthcare.gov splash page stock photo girl! You’re now the most despised face on planet Earth.”

Who is she? What’s the story behind the Obamacare woman? CNN looked into these questions – and came up empty-handed.

“The company responsible for building much of the [HealthCare.gov] website didn’t call…back,” when the network called to ask about the woman featured on the front page, CNN’s Jeanne Moos reported Monday, “nor did Health and Human Services.”

“A small company that originally worked on the homepage told [CNN] she was originally part of the mockup from the design folks,” Moos said. “We checked stock photo files, but couldn’t find her.”

And until administration officials figure out a way to fix the site’s many issues, the woman featured on the front page, the “enigmatic Mona Lisa of health care” as CNN puts it, will continue to “get the cold shoulder.”

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