Obama Warns of Healthcare Law ‘Glitches’

Exchanges in Obamacare open on Tuesday

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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama walks along the West Wing Colonnade towards the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sept. 10, 2013, ahead of his daily briefing.

President Barack Obama warned Monday that there will be “glitches and problems” as people start enrolling for health insurance through the so-called exchanges that are a key part of his healthcare law.

“In the first week, first month, first three months, I would suspect that there will be glitches,” Obama said on NPR, hours before the exchanges were set to open on Tuesday. “When Massachusetts, just one state, set this up, it took quite a long time. It took several months before everything was smoothed out.”

But the president said the law would prove helpful to Americans despite its many critics, including congressional Republicans who helped lead the federal government to its first shutdown in 17 years on Monday night by refusing to fund the government without changes or delays in the law.

“I am very confident that despite some glitches — right, there may be some websites that, you know, crashed early, there may be some call centers where it’s taken a little bit too long — that despite all that, the basic prices that are going to be available to people and the choices that are going to be available to people provide us for the first time the possibility, the prospect that any American out there who does not currently have health insurance can get high-quality health insurance,” Obama said.

“Discount all the political talk, go to the website healthcare.gov directly, and see whether or not this is something that’s good for you,” Obama added.

Healthcare.gov acknowledged delays on its Twitter feed Tuesday morning.

[NPR]