President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended his health care law from “grossly misleading” critics challenging his claim that Americans who liked their insurance could keep it and from persistent problems with HealthCare.gov. 
 
 “For the vast majority of people who have health insurance that works, you can keep it,” Obama said Boston’s Faneuil Hall, where former Gov. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy came together in 2006 as Romney signed Massachusetts’s health care law. 
 
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 reset Obama interrupted by hecklers Full remarks 
 
 “For the fewer than five percent of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal. So anybody peddling the notion that insurers are canceling peoples’ plans without mentioning that almost all the insurers are encouraging people to join better plans with the same carrier and stronger benefits and stronger protections … you’re being grossly misleading. To say the least.” 
 
 (Understanding Obamacare: POLITICO’s guide to the ACA) 
 
 Obama’s comments came as he tried to explain why his years of claims that Americans who liked their health insurance plans would be able to keep them once the Affordable Care Act were not inaccurate. Over the course of more than five minutes, he laid out the fact that a small percentage of Americans with insurance policies through the individual market are being notified by their insurers that their plans are being cancelled because of the law’s new standards but that that is ultimately good for those people. 
 
 While struggling to explain why he hadn’t misled in saying that Americans who liked their plans could keep them, Obama played defense on a second front, voicing continued frustration with HealthCare.gov. 
 
 “The web site is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck and I’m not happy about it,” he said. “There is no excuse for it. And I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP.” 
 
 While he acknowledged that there were legitimate problems with the law and its implementation, Obama lashed out at critics looking for anything to complain about. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Sebelius testifies on Obamacare rollout) 
 
 “It’s no surprise that some of the same folks trying to scare people now are the same folks who have been trying to sink the Affordable Care Act from the beginning,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t understand it. Providing people with health care should be a no-brainer. Giving people a chance to get health care should be a no-brainer.” 
 
 Obama traveled to Boston for evening fundraisers, but also to draw parallels between the ACA and Massachusetts’s health care law, which wasn’t “perfect right away,” as he put it. Just 123 people signed up for coverage during the state’s first month of open enrollment but, over the course of several months, signups accelerated and kinks were worked out of the system. 
 
 Still, “Democrats and Republicans came together to make health reform a reality for the people of Massachusetts,” he said, by connecting “the progressive vission of health care for all with some ideas of markets and competition that had long been championed by conservatives. And … it worked.” 
 
 (PHOTOS: 10 Sebelius quotes about Obamacare website) 
 
 The ACA was, he said, built on “this template of proven, bipartisan success,” which means it will take time and tweaks for the law to work smoothly. 
 
 Though Romney’s name was invoked several times over the course of the president’s speech, the former Republican presidential candidate wasn’t invited to the speech, principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One. Still, he said, Romney “should be proud” of the law he signed. 
 
 In a statement Wednesday morning, Romney said that he still favors his state-based health care law over federal legislation. 
 
 “In the years since the Massachusetts health care law went into effect nothing has changed my view that a plan crafted to fit the unique circumstances of a single state should not be grafted onto the entire country,” Romney said. “Beyond that, had President Obama actually learned the lessons of Massachusetts health care, millions of Americans would not lose the insurance they were promised they could keep, millions more would not see their premiums skyrocket, and the installation of the program would not have been a frustrating embarrassment.” 
 
 (PHOTOS: House hearing on Obamacare website) 
 
 While Romney wasn’t on stage Wednesday, successor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, was. “Health care reform is working for the people of Massachusetts and it will work for the people of America,” Patrick said as he warmed up the crowd for Obama. 
 
 Responding to Obama’s defense of his promise that Americans who liked their plans could keep them, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that, “despite the evidence, the president continues to mislead the American people about his health care law.” 
 
 “The president promised that if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. It wasn’t true when he said it years ago, and, as millions of Americans are finding out, it’s not true now,” Boehner said in a statement. “Millions are being forced to buy new, Washington-approved plans, regardless of whether they liked their old plan or not and often at a higher cost. The president sold this law on a pack of lofty promises. But what he said simply wasn’t true. The American people deserve better.” ||||| Declaring himself "not happy" with health care enrollment problems, President Barack Obama said Wednesday he takes "full responsibility" for resolving the computer problems that have bedeviled the administration and undermined a key step in the health care law. "We're going to see this through," he said. 
 
 President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Obama's rival... (Associated Press) 
 
 Protesters interrupt President Barack Obama as he speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Faneuil Hall is where former Massachusetts Gov.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Obama chose to address both the benefits and the difficulties of the health care law in Massachusetts, where the state's health care coverage provided the model for the federal health insurance overhaul. The president cited early problems with the Massachusetts law as he tried to lower expectations for the initial enrollment in the federal system. 
 
 "All the parade of horribles, the worst predictions about health care reform in Massachusetts never came true," he said. "They're the same arguments that you're hearing now." 
 
 The president pointed to benefits already available under the 3-year-old health care law, including ending discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions and permission to keep young people on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26. 
 
 But he conceded the troubled launch of the open enrollment period that began Oct. 1. 
 
 "There's no excuse for it," he said. "And I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP. We are working overtime to improve it every day." 
 
 Underscoring the president's challenge, the healthcare.gov website was down, because of technical difficulties, during his remarks. 
 
 Obama also tried to clarify the most recent controversy surrounding the law _ the wave of cancellation notices hitting small businesses and individuals who buy their own insurance. When he was trying to sell the health care overhaul bill to the public, Obama had vowed that anyone who liked their insurance would be able to keep it. 
 
 The cancellation notices apply to people whose plans changed after the law was implemented or don't meet new coverage requirements. The president said those changes ensure that all Americans are able to get quality coverage. 
 
 "If you're getting one of these letters, just shop around in the new market place," he said. "That's what it's for." 
 
 He said that because of government subsidies, most people who must get new policies will pay less than they are now. 
 
 Obama pointed to the bipartisan effort to get the program launched in Massachusetts, contrasting it to the Republican attempts to defund or delay the federal law. He spoke in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, where Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney was joined by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sign the state's 2006 health care overhaul bill. 
 
 Republicans say the current computer dysfunction is more reason to repeal the law, and they're pressing Obama administration officials for an explanation. 
 
 Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the health care overhaul at a House committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday, apologized for the problem-riddled enrollment launch. She also had to address questions about a government memo raising new security concerns about healthcare.gov. 
 
 Using the Massachusetts law as an example, Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor who advised both Romney and Obama on the development of their laws, said only 123 paying consumers signed up the first month of the Massachusetts law, with 36,000 coming on by the time penalties kicked in for failing to have insurance. 
 
 In a statement Wednesday, Romney said he believes "a plan crafted to fit the unique circumstances of a single state should not be grafted onto the entire country." 
 
 Obama, who lived in Boston while a student at Harvard University, was in town for a World Series game day, but his spokesman said he didn't plan to make a side trip to Fenway Park. Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama was mindful of the impact his security entourage has on the public and never considered attending. 
 
 But sports still figured into his itinerary. Obama got a private, advance view of a statue honoring Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell. The statue was scheduled to be unveiled in Boston's City Hall Plaza on Friday. Russell, who played for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969, joined the president. 
 
 While in Boston, Obama also planned to speak at a fundraiser for House Democrats at the home of his former ambassador to Spain, Alan Solomont. About 60 people paid $16,200 to $64,800 to dine on Spanish-influenced fare, to be followed by Red Sox cookies in honor of the World Series game being played in town the same night. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report. 
 
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 Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
– Just hours after his health chief got grilled on Capitol Hill, President Obama traveled to Boston to ask for patience on ObamaCare's tech trouble, reports AP. "I'm not happy about it," he said. "There's no excuse for it. And I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP." Obama spoke in Faneuil Hall, the same place where Mitt Romney signed Massachusetts' health reform into place in 2006, and he drew parallels between the two laws, reports the New York Times. "All the parade of horribles, the worst predictions about health care reform in Massachusetts never came true," he said. "They're the same arguments that you're hearing now." He also addressed the other major issue with ObamaCare these days—the fact that people around the country are getting cancellation notices. The president, as critics are happy to point out, had promised during his push for the law that people who liked their policies could keep them. Turns out, that's not true for all, but Obama accused his critics of distorting the issue. "For the fewer than 5% of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal," he said. "So anybody peddling the notion that insurers are canceling peoples’ plans without mentioning that almost all the insurers are encouraging people to join better plans with the same carrier and stronger benefits and stronger protections …you’re being grossly misleading. To say the least.” Politico's take: Obama is "still struggling to explain" why his first statement shouldn't be considered misleading.