Obama personally apologizes for Americans losing health coverage

Obama's comments come 10 days after NBC News' Lisa Myers reported that the administration has known since the summer of 2010 that millions of Americans could lose their insurance under the law. Obama has made repeated assurances that 'if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan' with Obamacare.

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Consumers who buy insurance on their own - about 5 percent of the population - are at risk of being forced off their current policies because their plans have changed and don't meet the new standards of the Affordable Care Act.

Obama's statement has been called into question as millions of Americans have gotten cancellation notices, effectively forcing them to enroll in a new plan either with their current insurer or through the government exchanges, in many cases at a higher rate.

Guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services dating back to July 2010 estimated that '40 to 67 percent' of the 14 million consumers in that marketplace could lose their policies due to turnover in the individual insurance market, NBC found. That part of the law does not impact the 80 percent of Americans who receive their health insurance through employers or through Medicare or Medicaid.

After the initial NBC News report, the administration insisted that the president did not mislead Americans, arguing that the law could not have accounted for insurers altering existing plans after passage of the law.

Yet earlier this week, Obama tweaked his promise, acknowledging that plans that have been substantially changed since passage of the law would no longer be 'grandfathered' into acceptance under the ACA.