President Barack Obama gestures Dec. 18 as he and first lady Michelle Obama meet with a group of mothers in the Oval Office of the White House to discuss how health care reform could benefit their families. The president is trying rebound after a rocky first few months of “ObamaCare.”

RALEIGH, N.C. — President Barack Obama’s decision a month ago that allowed people to keep insurance policies once slated for cancellation under the federal health overhaul has received a mixed response from insurers, state regulators and consumers.

In pitching the overhaul, Obama had long promised that people who liked their policies could keep them. But many consumers complained upon getting notification from their insurers in October and November that their individual policies would be canceled because they didn’t cover basic benefits required by the Affordable Care Act, such as pre-existing conditions or hospitalization.

Then, Obama announced Nov. 14 that companies could continue existing policies that don’t meet the minimum requirements if state regulators approved.

Reporting by The Associated Press shows older policies are being allowed to continue in 36 states, either because officials allowed it after Obama’s announcement, decided not to intervene in any way or had made a decision earlier in the year to extend noncompliant policies for a period of time.

Even so, insurers were given a choice of whether to continue the policies, and some declined to do so.

In Kentucky, insurers Humana, United Healthcare and Assurant chose to extend old policies while Anthem and Bluegrass Family Health opted against it. Seven companies in South Carolina are extending individual plans the federal law considers substandard, while six companies are extending plans in the small group market.

Prices on noncompliant policies are rising in other states, as well. Anthem Blue Cross in Maine plans to raise premiums by an average of 12 percent on its no-longer-canceled policies. The Blue Cross provider in neighboring New Hampshire expects an average 7 percent increase, an amount that is in line with previous years’ premium increases.

Raleigh, N.C., attorney Jeff Poley, 42, says he is fine with paying more for his current policy, considering what it would have cost him to switch to a new one. He has been covered with a high-deductible health policy from Blue Cross for the past two years, which currently costs $137 a month.

When he initially received a cancellation notice, Blue Cross said the closest plan that met all of the new federal requirements would cost nearly twice as much.

But after Obama’s announcement, Blue Cross offered to extend Poley’s old plan for another year at $170 a month.

“I was glad for the one-year reprieve, but I would still like a permanent fix because I don’t need abortion coverage, I don’t need maternity coverage,” said Poley.

About 15 million Americans buy policies as individuals, according to Families USA, a nonprofit organization that backs health reform. Before Obama’s announcement, insurers sent at least 4.7 million policy cancellation notices, according to a tally by the AP. The number is likely much higher because officials in nearly 20 states said they were unable to provide information on cancellation notices or were not tracking it.

Sabrina Corlette, project director at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University, warns that Obama’s decision last month could allow younger people with relatively few health problems to stay on bare-bones policies. That could lead to higher premiums in 2015 to offset insurers’ cost of covering people with more health problems, she said.