(NECN) – Over seven million Americans signed up for Obamacare by last Monday’s deadline.

Robert Mechanic, a health care expert and senior fellow at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, joined NECN to discuss the roll out.

Mechanic says that although the website had problems, the issues were temporary and there is a high demand for the services the plan offers.

“The plan really is to roll this out over a period of three years, and so the projections from the congressional budget office were six to seven million this year, 13 million next year, and in 2016 where the full brunt of the mandate penalties start to come in, closer to 22 million,” Mechanic explained.

In addition, Mechanic discussed the need for younger people to join the plan.

“For the prices to stay stable over the next three years, we need to get more younger people signing up that it appears we have today,” he added.

Mechanic also discussed the latest in efforts to control health care costs both nationally and in Massachusetts.