CHICAGO Anticipating heavy traffic on the government's health care website, the Obama administration extended Monday's deadline for signing up for insurance by a day, giving Americans in 36 states more time to select a plan.

Colorado, one of 17 states with ther own health care exchange, did not extend its deadline but will try to be lenient with latecomers, said Ben Davis, Colorado Connect for Health spokesman.

The federal move was the latest in a series of pushed-back deadlines and delays that have marked the rollout of the health care law.

But federal officials urged buyers not to procrastinate.

"You should not wait until tomorrow. If you are aiming to get coverage Jan. 1, you should try to sign up today," said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the federal agency in charge of the overhaul.

Bataille said the grace period which runs through Tuesday was being offered to accommodate people from different time zones and to allow for any technical problems that might result from a last-minute rush of applicants.

The healthcare.gov site had a disastrous, glitch-prone debut in October but has gone through extensive improvements to make it more reliable and increase its capacity, and the administration said the system was running well Monday.

By the afternoon, the site had received a record 850,000 visits, five times the number logged by the same time last Monday, the administration said. Bataille said the system was handling the volume with error rates of less than 1 in 200 and response times at less than one second.

The administration was careful not to characterize Tuesday as a new deadline or an extension, likening the move instead to the Election Day practice in which people who are in line when the polls close are still allowed to vote.

The Obama administration is hoping for a surge of year-end enrollments to show that the technical problems were merely a temporary setback.

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Government gives Americans an extra day to sign up for health care