DETROIT (AP) — President Barack Obama's top health care official said Friday that the number of people wanting to keep insurance policies that were canceled because of the federal health overhaul is fairly small, but they have valid concerns that the administration is addressing.

"It's a relatively small number of people in the overall scheme of things. But for those people it's real," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during a visit to a Detroit health clinic, where she sought to reassure the public that a troubled federal insurance website that launched Oct. 1 will be much improved by the end of November.

Obama on Thursday said his administration no longer will require insurers to jettison plans that fall short of minimum coverage standards. Sebelius told reporters that the president's decision to let people who buy their own insurance keep the plan for another "bridge year" strikes a balance between ultimately still steering them to plans with more comprehensive coverage and also recognizing that residents who do not qualify for tax subsidies on the exchange may be at a financial disadvantage.