This photo provided by the Service Employees International Union shows people waiting to enter an Affordable Care Act enrollment event sponsored by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West and Community Coalition, in Los Angeles Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. California's health care exchange is targeting Latinos and others who missed last year's first enrollment season under the Affordable Care Act. While the process left consumers and insurers frustrated at times, the sign-ups in California were generally seen as more successful than in other states that opted to run their own insurance marketplaces.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The pitch for health care coverage is being made at nail salons, pizzerias, mosques and even bars.

As the second enrollment period under President Barack Obama's health care law begins, advocates are employing new tactics and expanding old ones to reach people who need insurance. Some groups are targeting populations they believe slipped through the cracks during the last enrollment period.

“We've had great success at laundromats,” said Robin Stockton, the navigator program director for the Center for Family Services, a nonprofit based in Camden, New Jersey.

The informal chat between wash-and-dry cycles can pique interest and lead some customers to call their hotline for more information, she said.

“Typically,” she said, “the question you get back is: 'Is this that Obamacare thing?”'

Open enrollment started Saturday and runs until Feb. 15. The HealthCare.gov website, where people can sign up and search for coverage, appeared to be running smoothly Saturday.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tweeted that the website opened shortly after 1 a.m., with more than 23,000 people submitting applications within the first eight hours.

She said 1.2 million unique visitors looked at coverage using the site's window-shopping tool in the last week.

In Washington state, though, the health care exchange shut down after the first few hours of open enrollment as state officials and software engineers tried to resolve a problem with tax credit calculations.

And just days before open enrollment, an old video clip surfaced showing an adviser who helped draft the law saying “the stupidity of the American voter” helped Democrats pass the complex legislation. Obama, just before leaving an economic summit in Australia on Sunday, said the public was not misled about provisions of the law. He said there was no provision that was not extensively debated or made fully transparent.

The Obama administration aims to have 9.1 million paying customers enrolled in 2015. That's well below the 13 million that the Congressional Budget Office had projected.

In Philadelphia, Enroll America organizer Neil Rickett is armed with a list of 500 bars and restaurants as he makes his way through downtown, popping in and out of eateries. He approaches bartenders, wait staff and other service industry workers whose high turnover and odd hours often result in a lack of health coverage. He gets workers' contact information and sometimes schedules appointments to meet with them.

“By going to them, we're upping our chance of getting the people we missed or didn't get enrolled last time,” Rickett said.