Medicare Chief Apologizes for Obamacare Website Glitches

The senior Obama official closest to the administration's glitchy health-care website apologized Tuesday for problems that have caused issues for Americans trying to sign up for health care.

"I want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should," Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner said as she began her testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.Tavenner is the first senior official to publicly answer questions from lawmakers about the problematic website.

She refused to provide current enrollment numbers, saying repeatedly they will not be available until mid-November.

"We expect the initial numbers to be small," said Tavenner of the enrollment numbers.

The website has drawn considerable criticism as a result of numerous glitches when the site froze up the day it was launched, Oct. 1.

As a result of widespread sign-up problems, some lawmakers are calling for a one-year postponement of the law's tax penalties for the remaining uninsured. The insurance industry warns that would saddle the new system with too many high-cost patients.

President Obama himself acknowledged the website was riddled with problems last week and vowed to fix the website issues.