US brings in tech giants to help Obamacare website

The administration of President Barack Obama has brought in well-known technology and internet companies to fix its troubled healthcare online marketplace, a centrepiece of Obama's healthcare reform.

The administration has brought in engineers from Oracle, Google and Red Hat to help fix HealthCare.gov, Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Thursday, according to Xinhua.

"These dozens of people are strengthening and reinforcing the team, we have been working 24/7 to address the problems around HealthCare.gov," she said.

After its debut Oct 1, the website has witnessed failures and was almost out of service during the first two weeks.

Many consumers have reported difficulties in signing up and getting enrolled. While the site has made some improvement recently, the enrollment system is still considered weak to cope with millions of users who are interested in purchasing health insurance plans.

As part of Obamacare, nearly all Americans need to have health insurance by next year or pay a fine.