The online insurance marketplaces that are at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul struggled to handle the volume of new consumers Tuesday, the first day of a six-month open-enrollment period.

Congressional retirees can stick with their current plans.

Their unity fraying, House Republicans bent but did not blink Monday in their demand for changes in the nation's health care overhaul as the price for preventing the first partial government shutdown in 17 years.