By JOSH LEDERMAN and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR/Associated Press/December 29, 2013

HONOLULU (AP) A December surge propelled health care sign-ups through the governments rehabilitated website past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration said Sunday, reflecting new vigor for the problem-plagued federal insurance market.

Combined with numbers for state-run markets due in January, that should put total enrollment in the new private insurance plans under President Barack Obamas health law at about 2 million people through the end of the year, independent experts said.

That would be about two-thirds of the administrations original goal of signing up 3.3 million by Dec. 31, a significant improvement given the technical problems that crippled the federal market during much of the fall. The overall goal remains to enroll 7 million people by March 31.

It looks like current enrollment is around 2 million despite all the issues, said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. It was a very impressive showing for December.

The administration said that of the more than 1.1 million people now enrolled in the federal insurance exchange, nearly 1 million signed up in December. The majority came days before a pre-Christmas deadline for coverage to start in January. Compare that with a paltry 27,000 in October, the federal websites first, error-prone month.

We experienced a welcome surge in enrollment as millions of Americans seek access to affordable health care coverage, Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a blog post announcing the figures.

The numbers dont represent a full accounting for the country.

The federal website serves 36 states. Yet to be reported are December results from the 14 states running their own sites. Overall, states have been signing up more people than the federal government. But most of that has come from high performers such as California, New York, Washington, Kentucky and Connecticut. Some states continue to struggle.

Still, the end-of-year spike suggests that the federal insurance marketplace is starting to pull its weight. The windfall comes at a critical moment for Obamas sweeping health care law, which becomes real for many Americans on Jan. 1 as coverage through the insurance exchanges and key patient protections kick in.

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Federal health care exceeds 1m signups