President Obama poked fun at his administration’s failed HealthCare.gov launch this year in Estonia Wednesday, joking that the tech-savvy country should have built the website instead.
“With their digital IDs, Estonians can use their smartphones to get just about anything done online — from their children’s grades to their health records,” Obama said in Tallinn, Estonia on Wednesday. “I should’ve called the Estonians when we were setting up our health-care website.”
Obama made the comments in a press conference after meeting with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, where he lauded the Eastern European country for successfully offering many government functions online as part of its national digital identification system.
After a 2007 cyberattack on the digital ID card system, Estonia has upped its cybersecurity and decentralized much of the system, according to The Hill.
The Obama administration holds that HealthCare.gov has not fallen prey to a successful cyberattack yet, but health-care experts believe the system is weak and a target for hackers. (RELATED: HealthCare.Gov Set To Blow Past $1.7 Billion Budget)
The federal Obamacare website is reportedly still facing glitches and a top Obama administration official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently warned a congressional committee to expect even more bumps when open enrollment begins next fall. (RELATED: Report: HealthCare.gov Still Doesn’t Work)