BOSTON Massachusetts has long held a special status in the debate about President Obama's health care law. It was a 2006 Massachusetts law that provided the inspiration for the 2010 national law, and Massachusetts already had near-universal coverage before the federal law took effect.

Now the state that gave birth to a sweeping expansion of health coverage nationally is trying to knit the two laws together and struggling to make sure no resident falls through the insurance net.

At the center of their frustration is a glitchy website that has forced the state to rely on workarounds to ensure access to coverage.

About 5,400 shoppers were able to enroll in health care plans through the Massachusetts Health Connector by the end of December, according to a report by the federal Health and Human Services Department. Of those, 31 percent were between the ages of 18 and 34.

But state health officials say that the number of new people were able access to subsidized coverage through the Connector and MassHealth programs despite the website problems was higher about 28,000.

Even so, 26,000 other people ran into technical roadblocks and had to be enrolled in temporary subsidized coverage through MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program.

Officials say they're focused on improving those numbers before March 31, when the federal health care law's first open enrollment season ends.

Jean Yang, executive director of the Health Connector, said the agency had to come up with creative ways to work around the website failures.

That included increasing call center capacity to help people who were unable to use the website. On Dec. 31, there were about 200 call center staff on hand three times the original capacity on Oct. 1.

Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor said the state is determined to protect the gains made since 2006. Massachusetts has the highest percentage of insured residents of any state.

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In Mass., website woes frustrate health care push