Steady health care sign-ups may miss goal of 6M

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The administration says President Barack Obama's health care law made steady progress in February, with more than 940,000 people signing up for coverage.

Even so, it's starting to look like the White House could well miss the unofficial goal of signing up 6 million people by the end of open enrollment March 31.

Check the math:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday that February's sign-ups brought the total enrolled to 4.2 million people.

But that means to meet the final goal, another 1.8 million people would have to enroll in March, an average of 60,000 a day.

That's way above the daily averages for January and February, which range between 33,000 and 34,000.