More than 2.1 million people have enrolled in private health insurance plans through new federal and state websites since they were launched in October as part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. While short of the 3.3 million enrollees that the Obama administration was hoping for by now, the number signing up for insurance is a dramatic improvement from the early weeks of the program, when barely 150,000 got coverage because of a series of technical problems with the federal website HealthCare.gov. Sign-ups for what has become known as Obamacare gained pace during December as the website’s performance improved, and as more Americans focused on getting coverage by the new year. Many of the newly insured under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enrolled just ahead of a December 24 deadline to receive benefits on January 1.