The Daily Mail is reporting that sources within HHS are saying only 51,000 people signed up for insurance via the government run website Healthcare.gov.

Two HHS career civil servants told the Daily Mail that only 6200 people signed up on the first day. White House and administration officials continue to insist they have no idea how many people have signed up but will release the numbers monthly after November 1,

It is apparent that unless there is a drastic turnaround, Obamacare is in danger of melting down as sick people flood the health care system with no offsetting increase in numbers from young, healthy Americans:

Healthcare.gov provides enrollment services for Americans in 36 states; the remaining 14 states and the District of Columbia, which operate enrollment programs in their own exchanges, represent 33.7 per cent of the U.S. population, according to census projections.

If the state-run exchanges were to have a similar response rate for six months, the national enrollment total would be approximately 2 million.

That number is less than 29 per cent of the 7 million the Obama administration would need, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, in order to balance the new health insurance system's books and keep it from financial collapse.

'The administration's goal is seven million people in the first year,' Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, a long-time Obamacare opponent, told MailOnline. 'We are not on track for anything like seven million. New Coke was retired for being a smaller disappointment.'

'There was no good reason to hide these number,' he said. 'This is not keeping a secret from the Russians or the Syrians. ... Why lie about this, for crying out loud?'

'These numbers reflect what we all know: Obamacare is a disaster,' Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told MailOnline. 'It is time for the president to admit Obamacare is not working and that the American people deserve better.'

Spokespersons for five different Democratic senators declined to provide comment, with most saying they are paying greater attention to the debt-ceiling and government-shutdown standoffs that have gripped Washington, D.C. since before Oct. 1.

I'll bet they've got they're attention elsewhere. "Obamacare? Wassat?"

The White House aims to see the health care exchanges enroll at least 2.7 million young, healthy people between the ages of 18 and 35, whose monthly premiums are needed to offset the cost of health care for older, sicker Americans.

It's unclear how many of the early enrollees fall in that age group.

A projected enrollment total of 2 million would also represent just 4 per cent of the overall number who could participate.

'More than 50 million Americans qualify for the Obamacare exchanges,' Americans for Limited Government vice president Rick Manning pointed out, claiming that 'this paltry response is a clear rejection of the system.'

It remains possible, according to the sources who provided the enrollment data, that overall rates of enrollment will tick up after the much-maligned healthcare.gov website is retrofitted with technology fixes that allow more Americans to navigate it smoothly.

A problem not mentioned in the article is that it is unknown whether customers who have gone through the entire process of signing up are actually getting accurate quotes on premiums and the subsidy they are entitled to. Customers won't know anything is wrong until they pay their taxes next year, or make the first premium payment to the insurance company.

The site is going to be improved - that's a given. But no one can say whether 6 months from now it will be reliable, safe, secure, and more easy to use. I suspect that in a couple of weeks if significant progress isn't made, pressure will be coming from Democrats to get Obama to delay the mandate for a year. He won't do it, of course. An admission that Obamacare doesn't work would destroy what's left of his presidency. Besides, he doesn't care what happens to Democrats at this point - he only cares about his legacy.

And that legacy may be tarnished by his advocacy of the biggest boondoggle in the history of government.