WASHINGTON–White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday he does not know if President Barack Obama has tried to navigate Healthcare.gov, the government health care website under repair after a glitch-filled launch last week.
I asked Carney at the daily briefing if Obama himself has tried the website to undergo the consumer experience.
I asked, “We know that President Obama’s an early adaptor. He has hand-held devices — do you know — and a lot of consumer experience that he can’t take part in because of his job. Do you know if has tried to use or to log onto healthcare.gov, if he goes back to the site for his namesake program?”
Carney replied, “There’s no question that he’s capable, when it comes to using technology. I don’t know that he’s — he gets briefed on implementation regularly and is shown how the system works. So I know he’s very familiar with it. I don’t know if he’s personally gone on the website absent those briefings that he’s had, but he is up to date on the implementation process. He’s up to date on the steps being taken to address the problems with the website. And he has instructed his team to work 24/7 to resolve these problems.”
I asked Carney if he could take the question and get back to me.
“I can take the question, Lynn. I’m not — you know, you can ask me a lot of things about what he is reading or looking at. I may not. But I can tell you that he — I can guarantee you he knows, in great detail, how the website works, what the issues are, the number of people who are — across the country who have been going to the website and exploring the options available to them, and he has made clear to his team that he wants them to take every measure necessary to improve the consumer experience.”
