Obama health target: 500,000 signups by Oct. 31

October 16, 2013 at 4:00p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first month alone, the Obama administration projected that nearly a half million people would sign up for the new health insurance markets, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. But that was before the markets opened to a cascade of computer problems. If the glitches persist and frustrated consumers give up trying, that initial goal, described as modest in the memo, could slip out of reach.