7:25 p.m. EST November 7, 2013  WASHINGTON--President Obama said on Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his oft-repeated assurances that Americans could keep their health insurance plans if they like them.

The comments, which Obama made in an interview with NBC News, come after facing criticism as millions of Americans on the individual insurance market have received notices that their plans do not meet the minimum benefit requirements set under the ACA and will be canceled.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," Obama said. "We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."

Earlier this week at a health care summit hosted by Organizing for Action, Obama added some significant verbiage to his declaration — "if you like your current insurance, you keep that insurance" — that was a standard part of his public pitch on his signature health care legislation dating to 2009.

"Now, if you had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed," Obama said in a speech to supporters earlier this week.

Obama's comments to NBC mark significant change in tone from administration following more than a week of his aides resisting suggestions that the president misled Americans.

Administration officials have stressed it should be no surprise that a slice of the 5% of U.S. consumers who are on the individual insurance market would be forced to switch plans as a result of insurance providers dealing with meeting the minimum benefit requirement established under the law.

But while Obama repeatedly trumpeted the ability of Americans to keep their insurance if they already had it, less emphasized was the reality that some insurers providing bare-bones coverage prior to the full implementation of the law would be forced to phase out such policies.