Story highlights President Obama tells NBC: "I am sorry" about people who've received cancellation notices

Administration would like to take care of the problem on its own; avoid congressional action

House will vote next week on proposal allowing Americans to keep current health insurance

Obamacare site improving, to be idle this weekend; Issa issues new Obamacare subpoena

President Barack Obama's apology to Americans whose health insurance is being canceled over the Affordable Care Act raises questions about how to fix that problem -- even as his administration scrambles to overcome a shaky website slowing down those who want to sign up for coverage.

Obama's now promised to address both issues fully, already putting a website fix in motion with the goal of offering a much smoother shopping and buying experience for consumers by month's end.

There is no strategy yet for responding to cancellations, but aides are instructed to seek remedies that can be carried out without reopening Obamacare legislation in Congress where conservative Republicans are energized by the program's flaws and hope to get rid of the law for good.

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Friday in Atlanta that no specifics have emerged for addressing cancellations. The White House said solutions must also include educating consumers who have lost their plans about available options that might allow them to afford new ones.

The cancellation problem

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Insurers are sending cancellation notices to some of the 12 million Americans whose individual policies don't meet Obamacare requirements for more comprehensive care.

Obama got into trouble for repeatedly saying over the years that Americans could keep their plans if they liked them under Obamacare. That proved untrue in a number of cases, prompting a political uproar in Washington and further unnerving Democrats already rattled by the website failure.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News on Thursday, Obama acknowledged the difficulty facing those whose policies purchased individually were being canceled due to Obamacare.

"It's scary to them. And I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me," he said.

He also acknowledged that "we didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law," which is something that "I regret."

The law does "grandfather" plans purchased before it was enacted in 2010. But those whose policies have changed since then must get new coverage that meets new mandates.

Under Obamacare, insurers cannot discriminate for preexisting conditions and must cover mental health, maternity care, and other areas. Some companies appear to be canceling policies for other reasons, such as withdrawing from states where they have fewer subscribers to save money.

The solution

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters "the President is determined to address some of the challenges from this law."

More details on the administration's thought process began to emerge even though no specific solutions have been offered.

First off, Sebelius said some people "have sort of been locked into coverage" with preexisting conditions and were delighted to have their plans, which are no longer available. She also said some who have received cancellation notices are "not at all unhappy" to now have choices.

Senior administration officials told CNN the president is seeking administrative solutions.

Some experts have suggested one approach could be to ask insurers to delay the cancellation of plans and extend them into 2014 so that people are not left without insurance. That has been done in California.

Earnest also said "many people" receiving cancellation letters -- about 1 million -- "are people who otherwise would qualify" for Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor.

He also said others might qualify for tax credits to help them offset the cost of coverage, and others still might find that they can buy "health care plans that are as good as the plan that they currently have" in the Obamacare exchange marketplaces for the same price or less.

"So one of the other challenges that we face is educating people about this system," Earnest said.

Congress wants its say

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Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, is the chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee. On October 31, Issa's committee issued a document subpoena to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for documents and information related to HealthCare.gov. "I've lost my patience," Issa said to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in explaining the decision to use a subpoena. Issa also said his committee has sent a document subpoena to website contractor Optum/QSSI. Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Speaking soon after the Health and Human Services secretary testified before Congress on October 30, President Obama took responsibility for fixing the troubled Obamacare site. "I'm not happy about it and neither are a lot of Americans who need health care," Obama said at a Boston rally. "There is no excuse for it and I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP. We are working overtime to improve it every day." Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Amid Republican calls for her resignation, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided a personal mea culpa October 30 as she testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "In these early weeks, access to HealthCare.gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans," she said. Speaking directly to Americans confronting the site problems, Sebelius added: "You deserve better. I apologize. I'm accountable to you for fixing these problems." Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Marilyn Tavenner is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is part of HHS. Tavenner testified October 29 before the House Ways and Means Committee about the Obamacare enrollment website and became the first administration official to apologize for the site's performance problems. "I want to apologize to you that the website does not work as well as it should," she said, adding that HealthCare.gov "can and will be fixed." Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the first congressional committee to hold hearings on the troubled Obamacare enrollment site. Upton opened the committee's October 30 hearing by saying news about Obamacare "seems to get worse by the day." "Americans are scared," he said. At a previous hearing, Upton called the launch of the website "nothing short of a disaster." Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, is the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. During the committee's October 30 hearing Waxman said that "the worst abuses of the insurance industry will be halted" by Obamacare. The California Democrat said the health care law's reforms mean better plans are available at lower premiums, and he urged his Republican colleagues to "stop hyperventilating" about problems with the website. Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is also the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. During Sebelius' October 30 testimony, Rogers accused the HHS secretary of putting the private information of Americans at risk by failing to properly test security measures on the Obamacare enrollment site. "This is a completely unacceptable level of security," he said. "You know it's not secure." Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, leads the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of conservatives in the House of Representatives. Scalise has an undergraduate degree in computer science and is a former systems engineer. During an October 24 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Scalise told witnesses, "There's a saying in computer programming: 'Garbage in, garbage out.'" Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, made waves on Twitter when he called the October 24 hearing on the Obamacare enrollment site's problems a "monkey court." Pallone made the comment when a Republican lawmaker at the hearing interrupted Pallone and asked him to yield his remaining allotted time to speak. Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Cheryl Campbell is a senior vice president of CGI Federal, a contractor for the troubled website. "In principle, it worked," Campbell said at the October 24 hearing when asked by a lawmaker about the product her company delivered for use by the public on October 1. "It's not working great, and we're working to improve it. But it is enrolling people." After Campbell testified, CNN obtained a confidential September 2013 report from CGI to CMS that warned of a number of open risks and issues for the site even as company executives were testifying publicly that the project had achieved key milestones. Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Andrew Slavitt is group executive vice president of Optum/QSSI, another contractor for the site. "The system didn't receive adequate end-to-end testing," Slavitt told lawmakers on October 24. Soon after Slavitt testified, his company was named by the Obama administration as the new general contractor charged with overseeing efforts to fix HealthCare.gov. Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Lynn Spellecy, corporate counsel of website contractor Equifax Workforce Solutions, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on October 24. Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – John Lau, program director of website contractor Serco, also appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on October 24. Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Dave Camp, R-Michigan, is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. During the committee's October 29 hearing, Camp raised concerns about the administration's projection of initial low enrollment in Obamacare's new exchanges. "I fear we can see a fundamental breakdown of the insurance market where premiums will skyrocket, pricing millions of Americans out of health care," Camp said to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Sander Levin, D-Michigan, is the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Illinois, confronted Tavenner on October 29 with anecdotal evidence from a constituent about changes to the individual insurance market linked to the implementation of Obamacare, changes that undermine Obama's oft-repeated pledge that "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan." "She has health insurance that she likes. She's been paying her premium. She wants to keep it. But she can't," Schock said. "Isn't that a lie?" Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-New Jersey lambasted Republicans on October 29 for choosing to pile on the website woes instead of working with Democrats to improve Obamacare. Pascrell pointed out that his party worked with the GOP to improve the Bush administration's Medicare prescription drug benefit even though Democrats opposed the new program. "We lost the policy fight" then but chose to help make the program work instead of trying to discredit or undermine it. "How many of you stood up to do that?" the Democrat asked of his GOP colleagues, "None. Zero. Zero." Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Key players in the health care hearings Key players in the health care hearings – Jeff Zients, former acting director of the White House Office of Budget and Management, has been tapped by the administration to provide advice to HHS as the federal agency works to resolve the problems with the Obamacare enrollment site. Hide Caption 18 of 18

House Speaker John Boehner welcomed Obama's apology but said he should back a legislative fix if he's really serious. The House will vote next week to allow anyone with an individual health care plan they like to keep it.

Some have suggested Obama agree to extend the March 31 Obamacare signup deadline.

Others like Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, have introduced legislation to delay by a year the tax penalty for people who choose to go without insurance and are not covered by Medicaid or other government insurance program.

The Manchin-Kirk bill would prevent any penalty before January 1, 2015.

The sign-up issue does not impact most Americans with health insurance because they have coverage through an employer.

During a conference call with House Democratic leaders on Friday, some members back home this past week said they got a lot of questions about cancellations from constituents, according to one aide. There was no discussion about potential fixes.

Online woes, effort to fix

The October 1 rollout of the federal HealthCare.gov where consumers could shop around and enroll in Obamacare plans on privately run health exchanges was a debacle.

Fundamental technical issues prevented people -- including Obama at one point -- from even signing onto the HealthCare.gov site.

In the NBC interview, Obama reiterated that he's "confident" a "majority of people" will be able to use the website and apply for insurance by November 30.

In an update, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Friday it is still prone to errors and slow response times, but it has improved since its disastrous launch.

A key part of the site will be down over the Veterans Day weekend, including Monday, CMS spokeswoman Julie Bataille said.

Jeffrey Zients, the management consultant and once and future White House staffer brought in to oversee fixes, said the outage will allow administrators to work through more issues.

Separately, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Friday subpoenaed White House technology officer Todd Park to testify next Wednesday. But the White House said he is busy trying to help fix the Obamacare website and doesn't have time to appear now.

Also, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told the House Ways and Means Committee the agency expects to finalize the latest enrollment-related data "shortly" and will provide that information to the panel next week.

The deadline for that information under a Ways and Means Committee subpoena was Friday.

"We value our working relationship with the committee, and are actively working to coordinate and reconcile enrollment-related information from different sources and collect data from states. Because this process takes time and we do not want to provide inaccurate data, we have committed to providing monthly enrollment-related reports," Tavenner said in a letter to the committee.

Committee spokeswoman Sarah Swinehart said CMS "has indicated they will finally be coming to the table to discuss how we can get get better and more access to data. We need the real information from the administration so that Congress can begin to understand the depths of these problems."