It's not the sign that the Obama administration wants people to see on its health overhaul website: down for repairs.

Using overnight hours this weekend to debug the system, the Health and Human Service Department hoped to fix the technological problems that overwhelmed the launch of new health insurance markets. Glitches have frustrated millions of consumers unable to complete their applications.

Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours this weekend, HHS said Friday. The department did not release a schedule for hours of operation, but a spokeswoman said the site would be taken down at 1 a.m. EDT each night for a few hours. The website will remain open for general information.

The enrollment function was back online at little before 8 a.m. EDT Saturday, but was working slowly because of heavy traffic.

"Please stay on this page," said a notice. "We're working to make the experience better, and we don't want you to lose your place in line. We'll send you to the login page as soon as we can."

There was no indication of how long the wait would be.

Credit card companies, banks and other online service providers regularly take down websites for repairs. That may also become a feature of the new insurance program.

An effort by congressional Republicans to defund or delay the health care law led to an impasse with Democrats over passing a budget bill, and that sparked a partial government shutdown Tuesday. Republicans quickly pointed to the website problems as another reason that the law they call "Obamacare" should be pulled back.

"Americans have seen once again that Obamacare is not ready for prime time," Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, said in a statement Friday. "A dysfunctional website is the least of that law's problems."

The administration put the best face on the situation, noting the unexpectedly strong interest from millions of consumers.

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Health care website gets down time for repairs