President Barack Obama's top health official says scam artists are taking advantage of the new insurance law to peddle phony policies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she's writing state officials about a proliferation of scams involving the new health care law, which Obama signed March 23. Federal fraud investigators are also on the lookout.

Some of the hustlers are going door to door claiming there's a limited open-enrollment period to buy health insurance now. In fact, the big expansion of coverage won't come until 2014. And door-to-door salespeople are unlikely to be part of the plan.