The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. October 22, 2013 Obama Defends Healthcare Law After Massive Online Failures ----------------------------------------------------------- President Obama defended his signature healthcare law Monday following weeks of technical failures that have prevented many people from signing up. Obama declined to say how many people have actually been able to enroll through the online exchanges since they opened three weeks ago. But he admitted there have been technical roadblocks. President Obama: "The problem has been that the website that's supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody. There's no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow. People have been getting stuck during the application process. And I think it's fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am, precisely because the product is good." Obama urged people to call the government's toll-free number to apply for health insurance, although he acknowledged wait times on the line may now increase. .