More than 2 million US citizens enrolled in insurance plan: Sebelius

More than two million Americans will start 2014 with private health insurance they didn't have before, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.

More than four million people have also enrolled in Medicaid, Sebelius said, adding that "we expect those numbers will continue to grow over time."

The announcement comes after three months of frustration, finger-pointing and scrambling for the Obama administration and its political opponents following the October 2013 opening of the federal and state health insurance exchanges at the heart of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Despite assurances from Sebelius and other officials, the federal exchange was plagued by numerous outages and glitches and only a "tech surge" of consultants and industry experts got the website working.

Sebelius said, beginning January 1, insurers may no longer preclude people from buying insurance because of pre-existing conditions; they may not charge older people much-higher premiums than younger people; they may not charge women more than men; and they must share pricing and benefits information to their consumers in a meaningful way.

People have until March 31, 2014 to buy private insurance and avoid paying a penalty for not having health insurance.