Of more than 100,000 people who selected healthcare plans last month, just under 27,000 used the federal exchange site, which has been rife with problems since its rollout last month, USA TODAY reported.
More than 79,000 people used state exchange sites to sign up for insurance; altogether, 106,185 people enrolled from Oct. 1 to Nov. 2, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The recent figure is a fraction of the people who will need to buy insurance in the inaugural year of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's landmark legislation.
The government has estimated that 7 million people will need to purchase healthcare plans under the new law. Of those 7 million, more than 35,000 are in California.
"No one will be satisfied with the numbers because they will be below what we sought prior to the launch," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The administration had been aiming for 500,000 enrollments by the end of last month, according to The Associated Press.
Officials expect the numbers to increase soon and emphasized that more than 975,000 applicants have gone through the enrollment process but haven't yet selected a healthcare plan.
"Even with the issues we've had, the marketplace is working, and people are enrolling," Sebelius said. "As more people shop and talk things over with their families, we expect these numbers to rise."
State health insurance exchanges saw significantly better numbers than the federal site, with 3,736 applicants signed up in Colorado; 4,418 in Connecticut; 5,586 in Kentucky; 16,404 in New York; and 7,091 in Washington.
California, a state especially targeted by the Obama administration, had 59,000 enrollments since Oct. 1, and a recent survey showed that 70 percent of site users found the application process an "easy" one.
"[The numbers] show momentum and very high consumer interest," said Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California, the state's exchange.
"The fact that the majority of consumers who actually used the website to enroll found it 'easy' should put to rest the drumbeat of stories about glitches and website problems and instead focus on the big story that Californians are enrolling in care easily and every day," Lee said.
Officials have acknowledged the federal site's glitches while still holding onto hope that problems will be smoothed out in time for the Nov. 30 date, which is significant for customers who want to be covered in time for the new year.
"There's no doubt that particularly the earlier experiences with the website were frustrating," Sebelius said Wednesday.
"It is running right now ... quite a bit better than October," she said. "It is very much up-and-running."
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