(Didi Beck/Neon Tommy)

The New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon that just more than 100,000 people have signed up for health insurance "in the first month of open enrollment through the state and federal insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act...." According to the same news organization, this is less than what the Obama Administration was expecting.

The Times specifies that, "the Administration counts new enrollees as those who have 'selected a marketplace plan.'"

Julie Zissimopoulos, Associate Director of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC, said, "the technology issues," are, "the most obvious" reasons for the low numbers. She also said, however, "It's hard to say whether this is a delay and there will be a catch up to the earlier estimate, or whether the final numbers will be lower than actually projected."

The numbers came out on the same day that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform spent a portion of the day in a hearing about the problems with the federal exchange website, healthcare.gov. It was also the same day that the Washington Post reported, "that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, according to an official with knowledge of the project."

There are multiple proposals to amend the law - such as those by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Landrieu's law would force insurance providers to continue offering existing policies.

Reach Senior Reporter Max Schwartz here; follow him on Twitter here.

Reach Editor-At-Large Graham Clark here; follow him on Twitter here.