US President Barack Obama says 7.1 million Americans managed to enrol for new health care coverage by Monday's midnight deadline.

President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, about the Affordable Care Act. The deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act passed at midnight Monday night.

Speaking at the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, Obama said the 4-year-old law, known as Obamacare, has not fixed the health care system but it has made it a lot better. He also praised the achievement of overcoming lost weeks at the start of sign-ups late last year.

The total number of sign-ups surpasses a threshold that had once been in doubt due to computer setbacks last autumn.