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Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The White House is beginning a renewed effort to encourage people to sign up for healthcare insurance under the Affordable Care Act, now that the Healthcare.gov website is functioning at a more reliable rate. President Barack Obama will launch a three week campaign Tuesday to highlight a new benefit of the law each day until the December 23 deadline to sign up for coverage beginning January 1.
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The White House waited until reports came through after the self-imposed November 30th deadline to get the website up and running, and it announced Sunday it had met its goal. The site now supports 50,000 shoppers at one time and on Monday, saw more than one million unique visitors.
“Healthcare.gov met our self-imposed November 30th deadline and even as we continue to make improvements to the website, we’ll also remind the public about how the Affordable Care Act is already making a positive difference in the lives of millions of Americans today,” said Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman. “The benefits of these consumer protections will only accumulate in the weeks and months ahead.”
Still, the Obama administration acknowledged the website still needs some work, trying to temper expectations while still convincing people to give it another chance after the botched October rollout. While fixing the website is a political necessity for Obama, and Democrats facing elections in 2014, the exchanges need millions of people, particularly those who are young and healthy, to sign up to keep premiums from skyrocketing.
The president is expected to speak at 2:30 p.m. EST. Watch live here:
