It appears fewer than 50,000 people successfully signed up for health coverage through the federally run Obamacare website during the first five weeks of open enrollment , falling well short of expectations for the period , the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday . The federal online application process has been marked so far by serious technical problems with HealthCare.gov since its October 1 launch . The website was established as the main source of public information and the primary way for consumers to purchase private insurance online under the Affordable Care Act , President Barack Obama 's signature domestic policy achievement . The Obama administration is scrambling to fix the problems and says website use is improving daily . It hopes to have the site running smoothly for most people by the end of the month . Some states are running their own enrollment programs for Obamacare and are faring better . The online enrollment debacle combined with some people losing their health insurance because of Obamacare have energized Republicans , who have hammered the President politically and see the rocky start as a potent campaign issue heading into next year 's congressional midterm elections . Joanne Peters , a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department , declined to discuss enrollment specifics in responding to the Journal report , which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter . `` We can not confirm these numbers , '' Peters said . `` More generally , we have always anticipated that initial enrollment numbers would be low and increase over time , just as was the experience in Massachusetts , where only 0.3 percent , or 123 people paying premiums , enrolled in the first month , '' she said of a similar program set up in the Bay State . `` And , as we have said , the problems with the website will cause the numbers to be lower than initially anticipated , '' Peters said . The administration has said it will release official data later this week . A senior administration official , speaking on the condition of anonymity to CNN , said the numbers reported by the Journal were not official and that final official data for the first month of open enrollment is not ready yet . The Journal 's figure is pegged to `` 834 transmissions '' received by insurance companies to complete enrollments . It reported private health plans had received federal enrollment information for 40,000 to 50,000 users . Marilyn Tavenner , the official charged with implementing Obamacare as director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , told congressional lawmakers last week the administration had hoped to enroll 800,000 on the insurance exchanges by the end of November . That figure would presumably include both the exchanges run by the federal government and those run independently in 14 states and the District of Columbia . It is not clear if it also included enrollments for a large expansion of Medicaid meant to provide insurance to more low-income Americans . A CNN analysis of publicly available data from the states with Obamacare exchanges showed 59,441 people had enrolled as of a week ago . At least 344,808 people have signed up online for coverage through Obamacare 's state-run insurance marketplace but have not yet technically completed the enrollment process . This figure does not include paper applications or those submitted over the phone .
Wall Street Journal reports figure for online enrollment on HealthCare.gov for first five weeks . Obama administration says enrollment figures not yet final , plans to release them this week . Obamacare website beset by serious problems , but officials say it 's getting better slowly . Hundreds of thousands have signed up through states but have not yet completed process .