Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that the primary Obamacare website, Healthcare.gov, was "simple and user-friendly, and the coverage is affordable."
"We will continue making upgrades and improvements to the consumer experience so more of our neighbors are able to realize this dream when the new coverage takes effect," Sebelius said in an
op-ed piece in USA Today.
Technological problems overwhelmed the launch of new health insurance markets last week, forcing the Obama administration to shut down Healthcare.gov over the weekend for repairs.
The website, which covers 36 states, remained open for general information, but Americans could not sign up for insurance.
"When the Health Insurance Marketplace opened last week, demand was so high, it exceeded even optimists' expectations," Sebelius said in USA Today.
"Nobody wants Americans to have to wait to sign up," she said. "Engineers are working day and night to make upgrades. We're adding more servers to enable the system to handle larger loads. And we're upgrading our software as well to make the system more efficient and enable it to handle higher volumes.
"This work is delivering results," Sebelius said. "Wait times on HealthCare.gov are now 50 percent shorter, and more people are enrolling in affordable coverage."